(President-Elect) Kerry urges more funding for VA center

[Ian David]

By April Simpson, Globe Staff | March 12, 2007

Patients at the veterans' medical center in West Roxbury are largely satisfied with the care they receive, but an infusion of funds would make it better, Senator John F. Kerry said yesterday after he made a surprise visit to the facility, prompted by recent reports of poor medical treatment and conditions at a veterans' medical center in Washington, D.C.

"This place is terrific, it does a great job," Kerry told a handful of reporters in the hospital lobby after he walked through four wards and talked to dozens of patients at the 150-bed hospital. "But like many places, they're strapped by funding, which we've been fighting for each of the last few years."

Kerry said he has visited numerous US Department of Veterans Affairs healthcare facilities across the country, including Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, where Iraqi war veterans recovering from injuries were being treated in squalid conditions, including moldy walls and rodent droppings.

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Kerry said he has introduced legislation to help fund improved medical care for returning soldiers, including a recent push for $18 million in additional mental health staffing assistance. Although Kerry offered a glowing report of his fact-finding trip in West Roxbury, he said increased funding would enable the hospital to improve maintenance, hiring, and transportation services. Budget figures for the West Roxbury facility were not immediately available.

More:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/03/12/kerry_urges_more_funding_for_va_center/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+City%2FRegion+News

[saltpoint]

1. Kerry, as usual and as always, does the right thing when it's most needed.

The Swiftboat Liars were swift and vocal in smearing Senator Kerry in the 2004 campaign.

Where are their whiney asses now, when wounded war veterans are being ignored and mistreated?