A plague of cockroaches has invaded and occupied a kitchen at a VA hospital in Chicago, ensuring that some roaches are being served up as food to veterans, according to a new report at Conservative Review.
“The vermin infestation has overrun the kitchen of a suburban Chicago Veterans Affairs hospital and is reportedly so severe that cockroaches routinely crawl across countertops as cooks prepare meals … [and] have even found their way into patients’ food,” according to Conservative Review.
The new scandal comes as critics charge the VA with failing to fix a tangle of prior scandals, which include efforts to hide long waiting lists and management problems that contributed to the death of ailing veterans.
At the hospital “The workers try to brush the cockroaches off the counters, but the bugs get in the food,” said Germaine Clarno, a social worker at the Edward Hines, Jr. VA hospital near Chicago. She is the local AFGE union president and a whistleblower helping an investigation by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, said the report.
Dietetic technician Kelvin Gilkey said that “Senior management is hiding the fact that this kitchen is infested with roaches and nothing has been done with it … I have spent 33 years here and never would I imagine that we’d treat the veterans like we’re treating them.”
The scandal is being spotlighted by Sen. Mark Kirk, a GOP Senator facing a tough election this November in Illinois.
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