Washington, D.C.
Leaking ceilings, moldy walls, and an impenetrable bureaucracy have contributed to “unacceptable” conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said this week. Gates was responding to an investigative series in The Washington Post that revealed that living conditions for wounded veterans treated at Walter Reed are so bad, hospital personnel have taken to issuing mousetraps to patients. The typical outpatient, the Post reported, has to file 22 separate documents in different locations just to be entered into the military’s medical-processing system. The Army has begun repair work on the facilities, and Gates has promised an independent investigation.
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