Yahoo – AFP,
21 May 2014
Washington (AFP) - President Barack Obama voiced outrage at an alleged cover-up of delays in treatment at US military hospitals on Wednesday, vowing to punish anyone guilty of wrongdoing in the scandal.
US President Barack Obama delivers a statement after meeting with Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki at the White House in Washington, May 21, 2014 (AFP Photo/Jim Watson ) |
Washington (AFP) - President Barack Obama voiced outrage at an alleged cover-up of delays in treatment at US military hospitals on Wednesday, vowing to punish anyone guilty of wrongdoing in the scandal.
Speaking
after a meeting with Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Eric Shinseki, Obama told
reporters he would not tolerate any evidence of malpractice.
"When
I hear allegations of misconduct ...whether it's allegations of VA staff
covering up long wait times or cooking the books, I will not stand for it,"
Obama said.
"So if
these allegations prove to be true, it is dishonorable, it is disgraceful, and
I will not tolerate it -- period."
Veterans
have had to wait months to see a doctor at some hospitals, and allegations have
arisen that administrators at a VA hospital in Phoenix, Arizona covered up the
delays there.
As many as
40 patients were reported to have died while waiting to be seen by a VA doctor.
Shinseki, a
retired general and Vietnam War veteran, has faced mounting calls to resign and
was subjected to a severe grilling by furious lawmakers in Congress last week.
Obama
pleaded for patience as the probe into the allegations was carried out.
"I
know that people are angry and want a swift reckoning," he said. "But
we have to let the investigators do their job and get to the bottom of what
happened.
"Once
we know the facts, I assure you -- if there is misconduct, it will be
punished."
Obama has
assigned a close aide, Deputy Chief of Staff Rob Nabors, to investigate the
allegations.
Nabors
attended Wednesday's meeting with Obama and Shinseki, who has held the VA post
since 2009.
Asked by
reporters if Shinseki had offered to resign, Obama said that the VA chief
"was committed to solving the problem and working with us to do it."
"I know
that Ric's attitude is if he does not think he can do a good job on this and if
he thinks he has let our veterans down, then I'm sure that he is not going to
be interested in continuing to serve," Obama said.
Arizona's
Republican Senator John McCain, Obama's beaten rival in the 2008 election and
one of the president's harshest critics on the scandal, criticized Wednesday's
comments as "wholly insufficient."
"I am
glad that after many weeks of refusing to acknowledge this widening scandal,
President Obama finally saw fit to speak about it today, but his remarks are
wholly insufficient in addressing the fundamental, systemic problems plaguing
our veterans’ health care system," the Vietnam veteran said.
Shinseki said he had previously been wrong to say the problem was limited and isolated Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA |
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