UNDATED (WSAU-Wheeler Newsd) The Veterans Administration’s in-house watchdogs knew as early as 2012 that excessive painkillers were given out at the V-A hospital in Tomah — and they kept it under wraps. That’s according to a new report to be released today by the U-S Senate’s governmental affairs committee. It said the V-A Inspector General asked for outside opinions from pharmacists about what was going on at Tomah. One pharmacist said the amount of opiates prescribed was so high, that the government could revoke the hospital’s licenses for dispensing prescription medicines. None of those warnings were in a V-A report on the Tomah situation in 2014. Instead, the inspectors appeared to trust V-A officials to fix the problems with Congress and the public none-the-wiser.
Gannett Wisconsin Media got advance word of the Senate report yesterday. Committee chair Ron Johnson of Wisconsin said it was another example of investigators protecting the V-A and sweeping negative evidence “under the rug.” He again called on the interim inspector general to replaced by someone who would be more independent.
The V-A did not comment on the report, but it again defended current inspector general Richard Griffin. The revelations came on the same day that Wisconsin Senate Democrat Tammy Baldwin introduced a bill to order safer and more effective pain management for veterans at V-A facilities. The bill was named after Jason Simcakoski, a Stevens Point Marine who died at Tomah last August from mixed-drug toxicity.
