Major changes at Walter Reed

Washington: Army officials are planning to revise the command structure at Walter Reed Army Medical Centre, installing a non-medical general officer as deputy commander to ensure administrative operations run smoothly, in the wake of serious problems with outpatient care at the facility, officials said on Saturday.

A one-star general - who has not yet been identified - will work with Major General Eric Schoomaker, a doctor who was named on Friday to head Walter Reed, according to two defence officials. The new deputy will likely be a combat arms general who will bring a non-medical eye to the operation to "make it run like it's supposed to run," said one Army official familiar with the decision.

Directed

General Richard Cody, the Army's vice chief of staff, has also directed that an infantry officer - one who recently served in Iraq - take over the lead of a new, revamped unit at Walter Reed called the "Wounded Warrior Transition Brigade" that will aim specifically at taking care of outpatients. The new brigade will address problems such as those identified in a series of Washington Post articles about substandard conditions and bureaucratic tangles that affected the care of injured soldiers who had returned from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"The changes will allow commanders to provide direct organisational leadership without any other distraction," said Brigadier General Tony Cucolo, the Army's top spokesman.

Since the problems at Walter Reed were made public, the Army has worked to refurbish Building 18, an off-campus facility where dozens of outpatients stay, and there has been a shake-up in leadership both at the facility and atop the Army. Major General George Weightman was relieved as Walter Reed commander on Thursday, and Army Secretary Francis Harvey resigned the next day under pressure from Defence Secretary Robert Gates.

Tough questions

A series of congressional hearings about Walter Reed are scheduled to begin today, during which Lieutenant General Kevin Kiley, the Army's surgeon general, is expected to face tough questioning about the facility. Kiley commanded Walter Reed until 2004, when he became the Army's top doctor.

Also on Saturday, the Army released a statement that indicates Weightman acted upon a warning last year from a subordinate about a shortage of workers at Walter Reed and resolved the critical issues that were raised. Colonel Peter Garibaldi, the Walter Reed garrison commander, issued a statement through the Army to follow up on an internal memorandum he wrote in September.

In that memo, released publicly on Friday by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Garibaldi warned "patient care services are at risk of mission failure" because of staff shortages brought on by the privatisation of the hospital's support work force.

Garibaldi said on Saturday Weightman "evaluated the situation and recognised its importance. Consequently all three of the critical issues I highlighted were resolved".

Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Henry Waxman, and National Security subcommittee Chairman John Tierney, had cited the Garibaldi memo as raising "a new dimension to the problems at Walter Reed".