Pest infestation at Tampa VA hospital

Kristinn Taylor at Gateway Pundit writes about the deplorable conditions at the James A. Haley VA Medical Center in Tampa, Florida;

An internal hospital email reported by the Tampa Bay Times said that “buckets” of rats, roaches and feces had been removed from kitchen areas in recent months; that roaches were on food trays served to veteran patients and that three dead rats had fallen from the kitchen ceiling last week.

A spokeswoman for the hospital told The Gateway Pundit on Tuesday the infestation is “under control”, that the food preparation areas are “normal” and that “no pest activity evidence has been identified in food preparation areas.”

William R. Levesque at the Tampa Bay Times broke the story;

The company hired to eliminate the rat and cockroach infestation at Haley said it was told by the hospital Monday to step up its pest control efforts. James Saiko, senior business development executive with Visions Inc. of Brooklyn Park, Minn., said Visions is about two weeks into its efforts to eradicate the infestations.

“We were requested to increase our program services during these initial nine weeks to be additionally aggressive to gain control of the current pest issues,” Saiko said in an email to the Times.

Remember eight years ago when the Washington Post pounded us every day about conditions at Walter Reed (the deplorable conditions weren’t really “at” Walter Reed – it was across the street), so certainly, even though it’s a different President in the White House, you’d think that the Post would be concerned about this, right? I mean, the Walter Reed scandal was about the troops, right? Nope, the scourge of the Confederate flag is much more important these days than veterans living in squalor at the Post.

So, at least the Stars & Stripes has it covered, right? Nope, they would rather discuss whether or not military bases should be named for Confederate generals – because that will save lives. The Military Times? Nope.

Concerned Veterans for America released a statement;

Diego Echeverri, Florida State Director for Concerned Veterans for America, issued the following statement in reaction:

“The infestation of cockroaches, rats and mice at the Tampa VA hospital is disgusting and beyond unacceptable. This situation is a prime example of VA mismanagement and dysfunction. It’s clear managers should have taken action long before now to address the pests, and the VA’s reaction to this situation should not be tolerated. The Tampa VA hospital owes veterans an apology—not a defense of the deplorable conditions of the hospital.

“Our veterans fought to defend our country; they shouldn’t have to fight cockroaches off their trays at a VA medical center.”

Here’s the only statement that the Tampa Bay Times can get out of VA hospital staff;

“It’s important to remember that the rodents found deceased means our efforts are working,” Collins said in an email statement to the Times.

“Patients should be confident in our efforts to ensure their health and safety. We remain diligent in our pest control efforts.”

But it took the TBT to get anything done about the problem.

Category: Veterans Issues, Veterans' Affairs Department