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WASHINGTON - US Army Secretary Francis Harvey has resigned after reports that troops wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan were being poorly treated at the Army's top hospital, Defence Secretary Robert Gates said today.
The resignation of Harvey, the top civilian at the Pentagon overseeing the army, was announced a day after the head of the Walter Reed Medical Centre hospital was fired.
Gates said problems at the Washington hospital were due to leadership.
"I am disappointed that some in the Army have not adequately appreciated the seriousness of the situation pertaining to outpatient care at Walter Reed," Gates said.
"Some have shown too much defensiveness and have not shown enough focus on digging into and addressing the problems."
Gates said a new permanent chief of the medical centre would be announced later today.
The Bush administration has put Army surgeon-general Lieutenant General Kevin Kiley, a former commander of Walter Reed, in temporary charge but that decision was criticised by some who noted Kiley had been accused of ignoring earlier complaints about outpatient care.
Problems at an adjunct building of Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington were brought to light by a Washington Post investigation published last month.
It found that recuperating soldiers were living in a dilapidated building infested with mice, mold and cockroaches.
The Washington Post reports were particularly embarrassing because President George W Bush and defence officials have repeatedly visited the wounded in the hospital to show their concern for those who served in battle.
Bush, scrambling to respond to the outcry over shoddy health care and the complex bureaucracy facing US soldiers, said he would name a bipartisan panel to review medical care for military veterans.
"This is unacceptable to me, it is unacceptable to our country and it's not going to continue," Bush said in his weekly radio address, taped on Friday and released ahead of its usual Saturday morning delivery.
Bush, who learned of the problems by reading the newspaper, said he was deeply troubled by the reports. He said while most of the people working at the hospital are dedicated professionals, "some of our troops at Walter Reed have experienced bureaucratic delays and living conditions that are less than they deserve."
Members of the presidential commission are to be announced in coming days and will be given a deadline to report back.
They will conduct a comprehensive review of the care that the US government is providing the wounded.
The White House said the bipartisan panel's review would be separate from a similar investigation ordered by the Pentagon.
More than 10,000 US troops in the Iraq war and more than 600 involved in the Afghan conflict have been wounded so seriously they were unable to return to duty within 72 hours, according to Pentagon statistics.
- REUTERS
