(Eleanor Holmes) Norton Seeks To Prevent Walter Reed Closure

[babylonsister]

http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0307/402975.html

Norton Seeks To Prevent Walter Reed Closure

Washington - Monday March 05, 2007 8:44 pm


D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton says she will introduce a bill to reverse the closing of Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

The announcement came after a House committee hearing that the D.C. Democrat says laid bare a broken administrative system.

Walter Reed is slated to close by 2011 and be combined with the National Naval Medical Center in a new hospital to be built in Bethesda.

Norton says Walter Reed' problems were caused by the impending closure and the privatization of most jobs on the post - including the staff that maintains buildings where outpatients live in substandard conditions.

[w4rma]

1. Good. (nt)

[IndianaGreen]

2. Privatizing outpatient services was a major blunder

DOD has been privatizing a lot of stuff, at a greater cost to the taxpayer, and a loss of service to customers. It doesn't matter whether you are talking logistics, information technology, or in the OP's case, medical care. People are being hurt so that our glorious corporations reap the maximum profits.

As to the specifics of Walter Reed's closing, perhaps Congress should take another look at the entire BRAC list for 2005. Do we need new nuclear subs for a non-existent enemy, or a new generation of H-bombs and missiles, or do we need to invest in people?

[Greeby]

3. No blunder

When you have market fundamentalists in charge

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_fundamentalism

[salin]

4. There need to be cost analysis studies to demonstrate

the so-called "savings" (or higher costs) of program after program that has been privatized. The public has to become aware of the scam that this scheme really is and how much it costs us. That is the only way to not only reverse some of the current and recent privatization schemes, but to also prevent it from becoming vogue again in the future.