We received the following in a press release:
(Washington, DC) - Yesterday, in a letter to House Veterans' Affairs Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Harry Mitchell, Rep. Tim Walz called for hearings into the quality of care American veterans receive at veterans' homes. Reports recently surfaced that the Minneapolis Veterans' Home, which receives roughly 20 percent of its funding from the federal government, has a long history of rules violations and negligence. Three residents of the Minneapolis Veterans' Home died in January from medical errors and neglect.
"It is important that we care for veterans in all stages of life," said Walz who sits on the VA Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. "Our veterans' homes care for those who served us long ago, as well as those soldiers so severely injured in recent wars that they require the kind of 24-hour care these facilities are supposed to provide."
Walz continued, "The recent GAO report on the state of veterans' facilities across the nation, coupled with the state inspector's report on the Minneapolis Veterans' Home, convinced me that it is necessary for aggressive Congressional oversight into the conditions at these extended care facilities until the problems are rectified."
"I hope that during the course of these oversight hearings we can address not only the negligent care that lead to the deaths of three veterans in Minnesota, but also the lagging nursing salaries, maintenance problems and lack of proper and continued oversight," concluded Walz.
Download Walz's letter to Subcommittee Chairman Mitchell: 3-26-0720WalzLettertoMitchell.pdf
A busy day; we'll have to put off posting our news digest until the afternoon.
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