Mar. 20, 2007 - 22:48 MDT

HIPPOCRATIC OATH

Little by little the scum oozes out. There was an item in Monday March 19th issue of The Rocky Mountain News in the National Section which I shall quote in full, it follows:

Walter Reed Scandal

LEGAL SQUABBLES OVER PRIVATIZATION CONTRACT FUELED HOSPITAL WOES

Washington -- "An Army contract to privatize maintenance at Walter Reed Medical Center was delayed more than three years amid bureaucratic bickering and legal squabbles that led to staff shortages and a hopsital in disarray just as the number of severely wounded soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan was rising rapidly."

"Documents from the investigative and auditing arm of congress map a trail of bid, rebid, protests and appeals between 2003, when Walter Reed was first selected for outsourcing, and 2006, when a five-year, $120 million contract was awareded."

"The disputes involved hospital management, the Pentagon, Congress and IAP Worldwide Services Inc., A COMPANY WITH POWERFUL POLITICAL CONNECTIONSAnd the ONLY private bidder to handle maintenance, security, public works and management of military personnel."

"While medical care was not directly affected, needed repairs went undone as the staff shrank from almost 300 to fewer than 50 in the past year and hospital officials were unable to find enough skilled replacements."

"An investigative series by The Washington Post last month sparked a furor on Capitol Hill after it detailed subpar conditions at the 98-year-old hospital in northwest Washington and substandard services for patients."

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This is an item I would like to have seen covered in more depth. For instance why was the staff let shrink from almost 300 to fewer than 50 ? And why didn't they see that this was an emergency ?

I can't get my head around this thing about privatization. Companies are in business to make money, so they will be sure that their contracts will make them money. So, it would appear that our government will spend our tax money that should have gone to doing the needed work, on privatization which I think costs more tax money than if government employeees did it.

And the way our government is overseeing contractors in Iraq and around the world it appears to me that the contractors are biting a fat hog in the you know what.

Seems that as always the taxpayer is paying extra, either to pay lazy government employees, or provide a huge profit to a contracting company, which often seems to run without any real oversight.

And the item mentions, "IAP Worldwide Services Inc., A COMPANY WITH POWERFUL POLITICAL CONNECTIONS," being the only bidder on this contract."

Rather tells a powerful story doesn't it ? Wonder just who are the folks in government that the IAP has such powerful connections ? I wish names had been named.

Where does the decision to "outsource" the work originate, and why no real oversight to make sure the job was being done or why the hospital was not making sure their staff was fully implemented ?

A blot on the escutcheon of our federal government (all arms of it) that a situation like this should affect our returning wounded veterans who have no recourse other than to rely on our feds to take care of them.

In a twisted way it seems that the only veterans we honor are the dead ones, with wreaths, flowers and parades on the appropriate days.

If this is the case with Walter Reed, how goes it with all the other military hospitals in our country and overseas ? ? ? ?

I think that anything to do with military wounded including infrastructure and all should follow the saying, an oath in fact, which has the beginning words from time immemorial, "FIRST, DO NO HARM," which I think the medical doctors possibly still pledge, that glorious oath is the HIPPOCRATIC OATH . . . . . . . . . . .

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