LA CROSSE, WI (WTAQ) – When he comes to La Crosse on Thursday, President Obama could be dragged into the controversy over the problems at the VA Medical Center in Tomah.
According to Gannett Wisconsin Media, ex-Tomah employee Ryan Honl wants to personally give the president a letter that calls for the removal of the VA’s interim inspector general.
Honl is a member of the “VA Truth Tellers,” a group of whistleblowers throughout the country who want agency watchdog chief Richard Griffin to be fired.
The VA defends Griffin, denying assertions by U.S. Senate Republican Ron Johnson that Griffin has protected the VA’s personnel instead of its patients.
Honl tried but failed to get Congress to take action a year ago — when he alerted them to drug overprescriptions, retaliation against whistleblowers, and other problems at Tomah.
Only after the Center for Investigative Journalism exposed the issue in January did Congress spring into action — and the VA began an investigation which initially confirmed problems that critics cited for causing patient deaths at the veterans’ hospital.
(Story courtesy of Wheeler News Service)
