Washington: President Barack Obama today sought to head off a growing furor over veterans` health care, deploring allegations of misconduct at hospitals for military veterans and warning that his administration will not tolerate it.
The Obama administration is under mounting pressure from Congress to address allegations of treatment delays and preventable deaths at hospitals run by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The Veterans Affairs Inspector General`s office said late yesterday that 26 facilities are being investigated nationwide, up from 10 just last week, including a hospital in Phoenix, Arizona, where 40 veterans allegedly died while waiting for treatment and staff there kept a secret list of patients waiting for appointments to hide delays in care.
"I will not stand for it, not as commander in chief but also not as an American," Obama said following an Oval Office meeting with embattled VA Secretary Eric Shinseki.
The controversy has risen to become a top issue in Washington. The treatment of military veterans is an emotional issue that resonates with a wide spectrum of Americans, particularly in the wake of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that grew unpopular as they dragged on.
Obama said that anybody found to have to have manipulated records will be held accountable, but continued to stand by Shinseki, despite calls from some congressional lawmakers for the retired Army four-star general to resign.
The president spoke hours before the House was scheduled to vote later Wednesday on a bill that would grant the VA secretary more authority to fire or demote senior executives.
The White House has said it shares the goals of the House measure, to ensure accountability at the VA, but has concerns about some of the details.
Obama`s statement marked his first public comments on the matter in more than two weeks. Last week, he dispatched his deputy chief of staff Rob Nabors to the VA to oversee a review of department policies and ordered him to report back to the White House next month.
Nabors, who also took part in the Oval Office meeting, was heading to Phoenix later today to meet with staff at the VA hospital at the center of the allegations, including interim director Steve Young and other hospital administrators.
The current director of the Phoenix VA Health Care System, Sharon Helman, has been placed on leave indefinitely while the VA`s inspector general investigates the claims raised by several former VA employees. Investigators probing the claims say they have so far not linked any patient deaths in Phoenix to delayed care.
