Congressional delegation, Quinn meet VA leader

WASHINGTON (AP) – Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki ordered a high-level, quality-management team to assess problems at a troubled VA hospital in southern Illinois, lawmakers said Wednesday.

Shinseki met with members of Illinois’ congressional delegation and Gov. Pat Quinn two days after the VA Inspector General issued a report outlining serious ongoing problems at the hospital where major surgeries were halted in 2007 because of a spike in deaths.

“The secretary gave us his assurance he is going to take this as a matter of personal priority, as he should,” Sen. Dick Durbin said.