Dr. David Walker will be the new Southeast director for the Department of Veteran Affairs.
The Department announced him as a replacement hire during the Fourth of July weekend.
The change is being made due to recurring problems within VA facilities including patient neglect and surgical suite shutdowns.
VISN 7, which covers the Southeast region, has been facing issues with the director position for the past decade.
The previous full-time director, resigned after a VA hospital patient was found covered with over 100 ant bites in an Atlanta long-term care facility.*
Brandon Miller is the public information officer for the Alabama Department of Veteran Affairs. He says veterans should receive consistently excellent treatments.
“It’s important that when they return home they receive the benefits and the care that they’ve earned and deserve,” Miller said.
One of the main concerns of the department regards the volume of veteran suicides. Miller says a new project is underway to provide care for this patients.
“We publically announced a new campaign called Alabama’s Challenge that is aimed to improve veteran suicide in our state,” Miller said. “Alabama is very similar to all states in the U.S. and has problem with veteran suicide.”
The department worked alongside federal state legislatures and governor Ivey’s office to build the program months ago.
The statistics for veteran suicide rates in Alabama are higher than the national average. Due to this, Miller says the AL VA department will continue to work with different organizations to help resolve key issues.
On Monday the Department of Veterans Affairs became the first major federal agency to require health care workers to get COVID-19 vaccines.
The Southeast network overlooks Alabama as well as Georgia and South Carolina. Miller says the Alabama region provides resources for over 400,000 veterans.
*Editor's note
Joe Battle was mistakenly listed as the previous full time director. He was the most recent interim director. He took over June 7th, 2020. The incident with the veteran and ants happened in September 2019.