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Online town hall to discuss wounded care

Defense health care officials began accepting advance questions on Friday for an online town hall meeting scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 19, to talk about medical programs and services for wounded troops.

The online meeting, a “webhall,” will be held from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern time on Nov. 19, and can be accessed at www.health.mil.

Questions can be submitted in advance to MHSWebContent@tma.osd.mil, but questions also will be taken during the meeting, defense officials said in an announcement.

The forum is designed to talk about overall issues and not specific problems, officials said.

“For privacy reasons, participants should limit discussions to broad issues and lessons learned and not disclose personal information,” officials said in the announcement. “When possible, service members should contact their chain of command to resolve personal issues.”

The online event, timed to coincide with Warrior Care Month in November, is an attempt to show troops and their families that defense and service officials are making progress on resolving the myriad problems affecting care and support services for wounded and ill service members.

“We want to share with service members and their families about the progress we’ve made to find solutions that work,” said Dr. S. Ward Casscells, assistant secretary of defense for health affairs. “We want to hear from you directly.”

Those who do not participate in the webhall meeting can still provide feedback by filling out an online questionnaire. Defense officials have set a Nov. 28 deadline for questionnaires to be completed.