There is definitely a strong culture of fear and reprisal at the Albuquerque VA, both for patients and staff. Senator Jeff Bingaman's office has been gathering information on the many problems surrounding the hospital for quite some time. Stanley Allen is the point of contact at Bingaman's office, if you're interested. In the past year, there has been equipment sold on eBay, worth thousands of dollars, that was not properly accounted for. An unnamed foreman was alleged to be responsible, but there were never any charges pressed. The Albuquerque Journal reported this and it was reported to the Inspector General's Office. Go to the IG site and there is no report of investigation. This past summer, there were news reports about employees dealing heroin to VA patients on VA grounds. This was exposed by a narcotics sting operation led by the Albuquerque Police Department. They only found out about it because they had been watching suspicious activity at the McDonald's directly across the hospital. The VA would not provide the names of the employees and it is supposed to be "under investigation" by the IG office. Yet, if you go to the IG site there is no mention of it. There is so much corruption it is disgusting. How this VA has not been the subject of a large scale investigation is amazing. I can only assume that the same level of corruption carries through the entire VA system.
