It's gonna take a NEW LAW to fix this?!!!-----VA retaliation against whistleblower: doctor kept in empty room | Fox News

VA retaliation against whistleblower: doctor kept in empty room | Fox News:
Whistleblower retaliation continues as VA scandals persist
"Dr. Dale Klein may be the highest-paid U.S. government employee who literally does nothing while he’s on the clock.
A highly rated pain management specialist at the Southeast Missouri John J. Pershing V.A., Klein is paid $250,000 a year to work with veterans, but instead of helping those who served their country, he sits in a small office and does nothing.
All day.
Every day.
“I sit in a chair and I look at the walls,” the doctor said of his typical workday.
“It feels like solitary confinement.”
A double board certified physician and Yale University fellow, Klein said the Department of Veterans Affairs (V.A.) took away his patients and privileges almost a year ago after, he alleges, he blew the whistle on secret wait-lists and wait-time manipulation at the V.A. in Poplar Bluff, Mo., as well as his suspicion that some veterans were reselling their prescriptions on the black market.
When his superiors did nothing, Klein went to the inspector general.
“Immediately after the V.A. found out I made these disclosures, I started to get retaliated against,” Klein said.
Klein was initially placed on administrative leave.
The Missouri-V.A. closed his pain management clinic and tried to terminate him.
According to court documents, the V.A. tried to fire Klein “not based on substandard care or lack of clinical competence” but instead for “consistent acceleration of trivial matters through his chain of command.”
...“It could set a bad precedent for other whistleblowers because they're going to say, ‘I don't want to risk my livelihood, my career, my security because I see what happened to Dr. Klein and I don't want that to happen to me or my family’,” said Natalie Khawam, president and founder of the Whistleblower Law Firm, which represents Klein.
...Johnson is now trying to pass a whistleblower protection bill to help V.A. employees like Smothers and Klein.
A spokesperson from the V.A. said due to on-going investigations, the V.A. cannot comment on specific cases but added the department recognizes the importance of all employees, to include whistleblowers, who identify problems that impede the optimal delivery of care and services to Veterans..."
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Lots here, well documented!