Military Connection: Allegations of Mistreatment at Military Hospitals

By Debbie Gregory.

Patriotic Americans have been concerned with the treatment of wounded, sick or injured Veterans. Over the past year, an increasing number of accusations and increased scrutiny of conditions within the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) healthcare system have been hot topics in the media. But while the nation’s focus has been on VA healthcare, we might also have to start looking at the conditions of Department of Defense (DOD) medical facilities, as complaints of mistreatment at military hospitals are surfacing.

The Army has ordered an investigation into complaints of harassment and mistreatment from staff members of the Warrior Transition Units (WTU’s) at three medical facilities in Texas. Allegations from wounded soldiers at Fort Bliss, Fort Hood and Fort Sam Houston have described growing concern over these units’ ability to meet the medical requirements of caring for the wounded, sick or injured, while maintaining military discipline.

Complaints ranged from patients being required to stand watch for extended periods of time despite medical orders that require them not to. Additionally, soldiers, under heavy sleep medication, were allegedly being ordered to fall-in for early morning formation. Soldiers being “treated” at these Warrior Transition Units also described a boot camp-like atmosphere, with staff members name-calling patients, as well as accusing some wounded, sick or injured soldiers of malingering. Of course, not every soldier who spent time in a WTU complained of their treatment. But even if one wounded, sick, or injured soldier was treated in such a way by a healthcare professional or an employee in the VA healthcare system, there would be hell to pay… and rightfully so.

Some of the complaints come from soldiers who have PTSD and claim that staff members accused them of lying about their condition and taking advantage of the system. Could you imagine what would happen if just one soldier assigned to a WTU committed suicide after such treatment?

This type of conduct is in opposition to everything that the Army and all service branches have been trying to provide for their wounded, sick or injured personnel.

Service members deserve better.

The Army is not officially commenting on the ongoing investigation. But Army officials claim to believe that the complaints received are all isolated incidents, and not representative of a trend found among the 25 WTU’s Army-wide.

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