BERMAN: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm John Berman, in for Jake Tapper today. In the national lead, unsterilized medical equipment, chronic staffing shortages, bacteria in the drinking water. That's just a sampling of what it's like inside some of our V.A. hospitals. That's according to a new report based on the stories of dozen of whistleblowers working inside these very facilities. Our senior investigative correspondent Drew Griffin has been bringing national attention to the scandal for months now. He joins me from Atlanta. Drew, this is all according to a letter from the Office of the Special Counsel to the White House. Some of the allegations here are shocking. What have you learned from this report?</s>DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: This is the group of prosecutors that work for the government protecting whistleblowers and investigating their complaints. What the Office of Special Counsel is saying to the president is, look, the V.A. has been ignoring these complaints for years. And, John, the OSC is saying to the White House, do something.</s>GRIFFIN (voice-over): Among the worst documented of the V.A. horror stories comes from Brockton, Massachusetts, where two veterans languished inside a psychiatric facility for years without treatment. One of them was there for eight years after he was admitted before he got his first psychiatric evaluation. Citing a troubling pattern, the letter from the Office of Special Counsel to President Obama says, "Veterans' health and safety has been unnecessarily put at risk" because the V.A. refuses to admit that problems reported by whistleblowers could impact the health of patients.
V.A. Accused of Neglecting Patients