A bill introduced in Congress last week would raise the sanitation standards for foodservice facilities operating inside medical centers that specialize in care for military veterans.
The Requiring Accountability and Inspections for Dining Service Act, or RAID, would require all Veterans Affairs Medical Center kitchens and foodservice areas to meet private sector hospital standards, which are generally the sanitation and safety standards mandated of restaurants. The bill would also take away the VA’s power to self-inspect, requiring quarterly inspections carried out by a national accreditation organization as well as detailed inspection reports submitted by VA directors.
The legislation comes after a whistleblower called attention to conditions at Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital in Chicago. News broke in April that the kitchens were overrun with cockroaches that routinely crawled across food-contact surfaces.
“The workers try to brush the cockroaches off the counters, but the bugs get in the food,” Germaine Clarno, a social worker at Hines, told Fox News.
Several Hines employees attested that the infestation and unsanitary conditions have been a problem for many years, recounting stories of sick and injured veterans being served roaches in their hospital beds.
U.S. Rep. Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro, a member of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, introduced the RAID Act. He described it as an effort to improve care and address growing concerns of ineptitude sweeping though the department.
“The thought of roaches and other insects crawling across kitchen countertops where our veterans eat their meals is the stuff of horror movies,” said Bost in a press release. “It’s unacceptable and a slap in the face to our heroes that they could be subjected to substandard eating conditions that would never be tolerated in a private sector hospital.”
Inadequate foodservice facilities are a fraction of the problems that have been discovered within the Department of Veterans Affairs. For the past two years, the department has been accused of corruption and accepting lengthy wait times for medical care.
Bost is not the only official taking a stand against substandard conditions. Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., recently introduced similar legislation on VA Medical Center cleanliness in the U.S. Senate.