MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — The secretary of Veterans Affairs has replaced a leader of a task force looking at the future of New Hampshire’s only veterans hospital following concerns that he supervised personnel who were released in the wake of allegations of substandard treatment and conditions.
Secretary of Veterans Affairs David Shulkin replaced Dr. Michael Mayo-Smith with Dr. Jennifer Lee, the VA’s deputy under secretary of Health for Policy and Services.
The task force was formed following a Boston Globe report in July on a whistleblower complaint that described a fly-infested operating room, surgical instruments that weren’t always sterilized and patients whose conditions were ignored.
Mayo-Smith is regional director of the New England VA system. Veterans groups felt his representation was a conflict of interest.
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