A Pentagon inspector general investigation into abuses at Congress’s medical office is nearing its conclusion, with former sailors revealing that they were forced to do tasks not fitting their position, such as clipping a lawmaker’s toenails.
The Office of the Attending Physician is a small medical office dedicated to addressing medical emergencies for members of Congress and the Supreme Court, and until recently was staffed in part by Navy sailors. Though the position was generally considered prestigious, it was the focus of significant abuses in recent years as lawmakers took advantage of the convenient medical access, using its personnel for often mundane and low-stakes tasks.
“The men and women serving in this office are being asked to perform duties beyond those normally associated with their position,” a civilian medical professional working in the OAP told the Navy Times. “Colleagues have been bringing up issues about this office for more than 10 years.”
One sailor told the outlet that personnel were assigned to do tasks “no one else wants to do … like cutting a congressman’s toenails or bringing their medication to their private residence at 3 a.m.”
Former OAP members also complained about the long hours they were forced to work, such as when Congress was in session late.
“We usually worked 12-hour shifts, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., with duty every other day,” a former Navy hospital corpsman told the outlet. “On duty days, if Congress stayed in session late, the duty crew stayed, too, sometimes until about 4 a.m. We still had to be back for a regular 6 a.m. shift.”
In addition to having to work 70- to 80-hour weeks, taking leave was systematically discouraged, even when a spouse or child was sick. Sailors who took leave had their careers threatened or throttled.
Anyone who tried to leave the position was treated with hostility, and the three-year stint was often arbitrarily extended against sailors’ wishes.
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“I complained to leadership more than once, and about halfway through my three-year orders, I asked to leave OAP. That was treated as a very big deal,” a former hospital corpsman told the outlet, adding that a supervisor “threatened me with orders to deploy to the Middle East and told me that leaving would hold my Navy career back.”
The findings of the investigation have already taken scalps. Rear Adm. Brian Monahan, the attending physician of the Capitol who had held the position since 2009, was fired on Wednesday, along with his civilian deputy.
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
