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White House clinic improperly distributed controlled substances during previous administrations, new report says
The investigation by the Pentagon's internal watchdog was prompted by complaints during the Trump administration.WASHINGTON — The White House Medical Unit had “severe and systemic problems” with its pharmacy operations and provided health care to ineligible staffers before the Biden administration, according to a scathing report by the Defense Department's Office of Inspector General.
The multiyear investigation was prompted in 2018 by complaints alleging that a senior military medical officer in the White House clinic had “engaged in improper medical practices.” The probe included on-site visits and focused on a three-year period during the Trump administration, as well as employee interviews dating to 2009.
"The White House Medical Unit dispensed prescription medications, including controlled substances, to ineligible White House staff," said the report, which was released this month.
The unit also kept records for Schedule II drugs — such as fentanyl, hydrocodone, morphine and oxycodone — in the same inventory that housed records for other medications, according to the report, even though federal regulations require them to be kept separate.
The clinic’s handwritten records from the Trump administration “frequently contained errors in the medication counts, illegible text, or crossed out text that was not appropriately annotated,” the report said.
The White House Medical Unit, which consists of multiple clinics in the Washington area, is staffed by military and civilian employees and overseen by the Defense Department.
Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, was the White House physician to Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump before he left in 2018.
A spokesperson for Jackson said in a statement to NBC News that the congressman was not the director of the White House Medical Unit during the timeframe for which the bulk of the records were provided for the report. The spokesperson noted that Jackson was the president's physician under Obama and later the president's chief medical adviser under Trump, and said the latter position, which Jackson assumed in early 2019, was a health care policy role and "had no association or involvement with the White House Medical Unit’s clinical delivery of care."
The inspector general’s report did not name Jackson.
A separate Pentagon inspector general report, from 2021, said Jackson had engaged in “inappropriate conduct” when he was the White House physician.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/wh...buted-controlled-substances-previo-rcna135787
Another bad look for Trump's administration