No Changes Any Time Soon for Wounded Troops

Many of us were alarmed at the conditions faced by our wounded soldiers at the Walter Reed Army Hospital outpatient facility. Wounded soldiers were surrounded by crumbling walls, broken light fixtures, and rats. The conditions were deplorable, and a round of firings was sure to get the ball rolling on fixing the issue.

Well, more than a month has gone by and, so far, little has changed. Money issued by Congress is going to support military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan, but, so far, the billions needed to update military medical centers have not come. Further, little money is expected to be spent on Walter Reed, as it will close its doors and be merged with Bethesda Naval Medical Center once facilities there are updated and expanded. Moves have been made to expand the resources available to the VA, but President Bush is expected to veto the increased appropriations.

Private and corporate donations have gone a long way to care for our troops in the creation of care centers throughout the country, but the military still finds itself outsourcing care of wounded troops to non-military hospitals for lack of staff and facilities. Problems then arise as to the kind and level of care given to wounded troops. The government provides funding on the same level as Medicare for outsourced troops, which means that higher-end doctors often will pass over cases in favor of more lucrative options. This still leaves wounded troops in the snarl of red tape and paperwork that they faced before the scandal broke.

Further, since the scandal came to light, more scrutiny has been placed on the policy of outsourcing medical care to private firms operating within military hospitals. The care given by IAP, an organization with links to Halliburton subsidiary KBR, was unsatisfactory and less cost effective than having the Army operate its own medical care. Here, again, the Bush administration has failed our troops in favor of granting contracts to political allies.

Some of these issues are, to be sure, the result of significant advances in military medical care. Improved medical techniques and equipment have greatly improved survival rates, but there are more injuries to contend with. While the battlefield medics and doctors should be lauded for this, the military and the government must be held accountable for not thinking ahead. Stateside military hospitals once waited weeks before wounded soldiers arrived from the battlefield. Now, a wounded soldier can be at a stateside care facility in a matter of days or even hours. The Army has a fleet of flying ICU’s at its disposal. Our wounded soldiers have never had better battlefield care. They are receiving the best military first aid in history. Where the military and the administration have failed is in the follow-up care back home.

Every war since 1900 has seen an improvement in the rate of survival after injuries. With a massive engagement such as we are now seeing, the military and the administration should have allotted funds for military care far in excess of current levels. Since the Walter Reed scandal broke, there have been no significant new initiatives to ease paperwork or find new facilities to care for our wounded. While these things take time, the fact remains that the administration simply did not prepare for a war beyond the initial major military engagement. In the 1500+ days since the President declared an end to major military operations in Iraq, more than 25,000 military personnel have been injured, far dwarfing the 3500 troops killed. The military hospitals state-side are simply not up to the task of taking care of so many injured troops.

Currently, the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is investigating the Walter Reed scandal. They have subpoenaed Major General Weightman, the former commander at Walter Reed, to testify, and are looking into how to prevent this disgrace from happening again. The fact is, however, that this should never have happened in the first place and that no recommendations are likely to come out, let alone be funded and implemented, for months.

This lack of planning directly led to the conditions at Walter Reed and the conditions still seen by many wounded soldiers today. The overhaul of military care will take months to plan and years to implement. In the weeks since the scandal broke, there has been a flurry of activity on the part of the administration and the military. The commander of Walter Reed was fired. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs has stepped down. All are the result of how we are dealing with the Iraq war. All are too little, too late for far too many people. There has been no major initiative taken by the military or Congress to either hire more doctors or to quickly overhaul care for our wounded veterans.