October 30, 2007
Peake Would Be First MD-GI In Charge Of VA
UPDATED.
President Bush credited his nominee for secretary of veterans affairs, Lt. Gen. James Peake, with "changing the way we deliver medical care to our troops."
"He understands the view from both sides of the hospital bed," Bush said as he introduced Peake from the White House this afternoon. Peake, the retired former Army Surgeon General and a two-time Purple Heart recipient during the Vietnam War, would be the first physician and soldier to serve in the top VA post.
A thoracic surgeon by training and a veteran of more than four decades, Peake will have to take charge of a department that has been heavily criticized for its administration of veterans care. Peake was the Army's top doctor from 2000 to 2004, and has acknowledged that the armed services were not adequately prepared to care for troops and veterans following the start of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.
Peake oversaw the implementation of new programs and training to help meet the challenges of 21st-century armed conflict. In a November 2005 interview, the general in charge of the Army's medical training said of Peake: "He understood that we'd already polished the apple as much as we could on combat support hospitals and surgical capability. We'd already started working on the forward surgical team that [moved] surgery a lot closer to the point of injury. He realized that any other impact we were going to make on survivability... would have to be... at point of injury" and not necessarily by doctors, but by other soldiers and medics.
The previous VA secretary, Jim Nicholson, stepped down last month following his resignation announcement in July. In a letter to the White House yesterday, Democratic leaders criticized Bush for allowing the department to be run without a leader.
Lawmakers will feel pressure to move Peake through the confirmation process quickly, but not without some guarantees regarding past scandals and future care. The higher survival rate, up to 90 percent, means more soldiers living through their injuries -- tens of thousands according to various accounts. An unprecedented number require long-term or specialized care.
"For months we've been hearing horror stories from Walter Reed and other military care centers and I will want to know what role, if any, Dr. Peake played in the failures of the system," said Patty Murray, D-Wash., a member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. "The burden is on Dr. Peake to prove to veterans around the country that he can be the honest, independent advocate we need to turn the VA around."
Following revelations that a dated bureacracy and lack of resources was hampering access to care for many combat veterans, the White House appointed an independent investigative panel to look into the problems and make recommendations. Bush sent legislation implementing the Dole-Shalala commission's changes to Congress earlier this month. Today, Bush said that Peake would oversee the reforms if confirmed.
Posted at 2:04 PM
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Bush Administration, President Bush
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