{"id":28011,"date":"2025-05-22T09:46:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-22T13:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/?post_type=press-releases&#038;p=28011"},"modified":"2025-06-24T12:08:18","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T16:08:18","slug":"sen-ossoff-demanding-action-better-care-for-veterans-at-dublin-va","status":"publish","type":"press-releases","link":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/press-releases\/sen-ossoff-demanding-action-better-care-for-veterans-at-dublin-va\/","title":{"rendered":"Sen. Ossoff Demanding Action, Better Care for Veterans at Dublin VA"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Dublin, Ga.&nbsp;<\/strong>\u2014 U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff is demanding answers and accountability after shocking failures at Dublin\u2019s VA hospital led to HIV and Hepatitis infections for Georgia veterans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This week, Sen. Ossoff is urging VA leadership to implement safety measures at Dublin\u2019s VA Medical Center outlined in&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vaoig.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/reports\/2024-03\/vaoig-22-01315-90.pdf\">a report last year<\/a>&nbsp;by the VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) following widespread use of&nbsp;unclean medical equipment at the facility&nbsp;that reportedly&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.military.com\/daily-news\/2022\/02\/10\/va-hospital-warns-thousands-of-vets-of-possible-infection-risk-improperly-cleaned-equipment.html\">put veterans\u2019 health at risk<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sen. Ossoff serves as Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee that oversees VA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vaoig.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/reports\/2025-03\/vaoig-24-02277-69.pdf\">follow-up OIG report<\/a>&nbsp;earlier this year, only some of OIG\u2019s recommendations to protect patients had been implemented and more safety issues were discovered, further placing veterans and their families at risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe severity of these egregious patient safety concerns are self evident: no Georgia veteran should have to worry about contracting a bloodborne pathogen, such as HIV, when they undergo a surgical procedure at the Carl Vinson VA Medical Center,\u201d&nbsp;<strong>Sen. Ossoff wrote to Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) Director Dr. David Walker, who oversees the VA\u2019s Southeast Network.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cVISN and facility leadership has now had over a year to remedy these issues, but have failed to adequately address OIG recommendations and find solutions,\u201d&nbsp;<strong>Sen. Ossoff continued.<\/strong>&nbsp;\u201cIt is unacceptable to allow veterans to remain at risk and immediate action needs to be undertaken.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sen. Ossoff continues fighting for Georgia veterans to ensure they get the care they have earned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Earlier this month, Sen. Ossoff&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/press-releases\/sen-ossoff-launches-inquiry-into-impacts-of-trump-administrations-mass-va-layoffs-on-wait-times-for-georgia-veterans\/\">requested information from the Atlanta VA Medical Center<\/a>about whether the Trump Administration\u2019s mass firing of VA personnel has impacted Georgia veterans\u2019 ability to access timely care at the Atlanta VA Medical Center (VAMC).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This February, Sens. Ossoff and Susan Collins (R-ME) introduced the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/press-releases\/sens-ossoff-collins-introduce-bipartisan-bill-to-help-veterans-in-rural-areas-get-to-the-va\/\"><em>Rural Veterans Transportation to Care Act<\/em><\/a>&nbsp;to help more veterans in rural areas get transportation to&nbsp;VAhealth facilities and access the health care benefits they\u2019ve earned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/25.05.20_DublinVAMCLetter.pdf\">Click here<\/a>&nbsp;to read Sen. Ossoff\u2019s inquiry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"># # #<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dublin, Ga.&nbsp;\u2014 U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff is demanding answers and accountability after shocking failures at Dublin\u2019s VA hospital led to HIV and Hepatitis infections for Georgia veterans. This week, Sen. Ossoff is urging VA leadership to implement safety measures at Dublin\u2019s VA Medical Center outlined in&nbsp;a report last year&nbsp;by the VA Office of Inspector General [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28011","press-releases","type-press-releases","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/28011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/press-releases"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/70"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/28011\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28012,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/28011\/revisions\/28012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}