Spa Day for federal workers in PR.

[procon]

They shut down a medical unit to get mani-pedis... Jeebus wept!

[enough]

1. What are you referring to? NT

[Whiskeytide]

4. I think it's a Maddow segment...

... Federal NDMS medical personnel in PR took a spa day while on govt tab and got pedicures, etc... A 20 year veteran MD resigned over it and sent pics to the media. Pretty bad.

[elleng]

2. Which 'federal workers?'

[mahatmakanejeeves]

7. I'm on a slow connection, but if these are the medical personnel who are sent where they

are needed, I don't think they are Federal workers.

There was an article not long ago in a local paper about an MD who was in this program. I threw out the paper.

I can look into this later, but not now.

[elleng]

9. Thanks. I have the same suspicion,

which is why I asked (and got an 'attitude!')

[mahatmakanejeeves]

12. Here's the story about the doctor in Alexandria:

Good morning. I'll take advantage of my high-speed connection to find and post this:

Help for Houston: Alexandrians pitch in to help victims of Hurricane Harvey

September 7, 2017

By Denise Dunbar and Alexa Epitropoulos

In the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, more than 1,100 members of the federal National Disaster Medical System were deployed to Houston to help provide care to the injured and
sick.

Among their ranks was Alexandria doctor Vivek Sinha, who runs Belleview Medical Partners in Old Town. Sinha joined DMAT about six years ago after taking an unusual path into medicine.

“I used to be a firefighter for many years, then went to medical school. I was always looking for ways to take health care out of the office,” said Sinha, whose Alexandria practice operates under a concierge, home-visit structure.

Sinha is a civilian who has never been in the military, but when he or fellow team members are deployed, they become federal employees and as such, the doctors are authorized to practice in all 50 states. The system operates much like military reserves.

There are around 5,000 DMAT members around the country, which includes doctors, nurses, EMTs and pharmacists. Sinha belongs to MD1, based in Maryland and composed of about 50 people from around the region. ... Teams can be deployed as an entity, or they can be used to fill in the ranks of other units. Sinha was part of a team that was pre-positioned in Dallas on Aug. 25 in anticipation of Harvey’s arrival and initially provided medical screening to first responders.

[elleng]

15. Thanks

[procon]

11. They are federal disaster workers with NDMS.

See my reply (#10) below with the Rawstory report. They say "federal disaster relief staffers", and the doctor who broke the story more specifically identified them as "NDMS medical personnel". NDMS acknowledges the situation and say they were investigating.

"The National Disaster Medical System (NDMS) is a federally coordinated healthcare system and partnership of the United States Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Homeland Security (DHS), Defense (DOD), and Veterans Affairs (VA). lifted from Wiki

[seaglass]

13. Yes, my husband is on one of the teams and just spent 3 weeks in Key West. As of now

he will be going to Puerto Rico at the end of this month.

I just saw a bit of the story last night. This would not fly with my husband's team. There are always a few bad apples in every bunch.

[elleng]

16. Thanks, seaglass,

and thanks to your husband for his work.

[procon]

3. Maddow just did a story...

A Dr. quit the disaster team because of things she's seen in federal response to PuertoRico. Photos of the Med staff having a SPA DAY in the sterile medical area of medical tents brought in for treating disaster victims. They brought in Puerto Ricans to massaged their feet and give the staff pedicures and manicures at cut rate prices.

Maddow also note that people in local hospitals are dying for lack of medical care and antibiotics when the hospital ship is sitting virtually empty with only 8 patients.

[procon]

5. "The federal government's response to this storm is now killing Americans."

Link to tweet

[yuiyoshida]

8. Fundamentally....

Link to tweet

[Angry Dragon]

6. Trump is doing a very, very, very poor job on this

[alarimer]

14. I think it's by design.

He is discrediting the federal government so no one will every trust it again.

[procon]

10. Rawstory has more details up on this appalling story.

Federal employees allegedly brought in Puerto Ricans to provide them a ‘spa day’ while doing disaster relief: report

Noor Al-Sibai NOOR AL-SIBAI
12 OCT 2017 AT 22:09 ET

A veteran doctor who’s worked on humanitarian missions in ten countries affected by disaster quit abruptly after allegedly witnessing federal disaster relief staffers in Puerto Rico bring in citizens to provide them with a “spa day” on the taxpayers dime.

The doctor spoke with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, and provided images and descriptions of what she saw, as well as her resignation letter.

According to the doctor, the disaster relief employees “used the triage tents that are supposed to be for medical care and instead brought in local Puerto Rican residents to give the medical workers cut-rate manicures and pedicures,” all while on the clock.

“I find this gross misuse of taxpayer funds and abuse of our privileged positions personally abhorrent,” the doctor wrote in her lengthy resignation to her superiors at the National Disaster Medical System, a cooperative agency between Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Defense and Veterans Affairs departments.

The doctor said she opposed the “optics of NDMS medical personnel responsible for seeing injured and ill Puerto Ricans who have no homes, food or supplies having a spa day on taxpayer money,” which she found “personally abhorrent.”

When Maddow’s producers reached out to NDMS, they said they’d been aware of the situation and were investigating it.

https://www.rawstory.com/2017/10/federal-employees-allegedly-brought-in-puerto-ricans-to-provide-them-a-spa-day-while-doing-disaster-relief-report/

There is a video clip from Maddow's show at the link above, but it won't post here.