Senator Ron Johnson Talks about Hot Button Issues, Part 2 Tomah VA Hospital
Tuesday, July 21st, 2015 -- 1:23 PM
-Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson was in the Central Wisconsin area on Saturday.Senator Johnson sat down with me and talked about some hot button issues on the federal level. The second item we touched on was the information that came to light in wake of the Tomah VA hospital incident. Senator Johnson was in the area to pay his respects at a fundraiser held by the family of Thomas Baer. He explained the fallout from the incident in more detail.
"It is a fundraiser. I'm just going to pay my respects to the family of Thomas Baer. On, I think it was, January 12th left Marshfield, drove down to Tomah with stroke like symptoms and suffered a couple strokes in the course of 2-3 hours while sitting in the waiting room. He eventually died two days later in, I think, La Crosse."
"And that's just one of the instances of the problems with the Tomah VA. And really, my generally evaluation did surprise me. I thought our VA systems here and our healthcare centers here in Wisconsin were doing a really good job and most veterans had access to care, very satisfying care. Maybe the wait times are long and the parking lots are full, no doubt about that, but, in general, the vast majority of people working those VA centers are providing good, quality care and the veterans appreciate that, but there was a real problem in Tomah."
"I first found out about it when the news story broke. It is sad. When I talked to Candice Dalis, Thomas Baer's daugher, shortly after I found out about it, I called her up to offer my condolences, she aid, 'Ron, had I known about the problems in Tomah, I never would have taken my dad there.' And so, as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, I decided to hold a hearing on the Tomah VA."
"Then I decided to hold it in Tomah. A lot of members of the Wisconsin delegation were there. The surviving family members were there. And we had some whistle blowers and representatives of the VA. Packed room. There were literally hundreds of people there to hear that powerful testimony."
"My frustration is, as Chairman of the committee, we've been doing our own investigation since we found about this. The VA Office of the Inspector General has been completely uncooperative. This Office of the Inspector General, this came to light, broken by the press, but it was our subpoena that forced these 140 reports on prior inspections and investigations that were not made public."
Coming up on Tuesday, Senator Johnson will talk about border security.
For More:
Part 1, Iran Deal: http://cwbradio.com/news/?fn_mode=fullnews&fn_id=14650
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