WASHINGTON, 25 February 2007 — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates announced plans late Friday to form an independent review group to examine Walter Reed Army Medical Center and other military hospitals.

The move comes after news reports indicated that seriously injured soldiers had been caught in a bureaucratic quagmire and given substandard outpatient housing at Walter Reed.

The review ordered by Gates will focus on rehabilitative care and administrative procedures at Walter Reed and the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

Gates said those found to have been responsible will be “held accountable.”

No one in the Army chain of command, however, has yet offered to resign. But the Defense Department has begun making repairs at Walter Reed and taking other steps to address the problems, officials said.

Gates said some of those directly involved with problems identified at Walter Reed had been “relieved” of their assignments. Army officials said later that no officers had been removed from command positions, but that there had been administrative reassignments of some midlevel officials at the hospital.

Gates spoke to reporters after visiting the medical compound, whose reputation as a premier caregiver for soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan has taken a hit following a Washington Post series of reports last weekend that documented problems in soldiers’ housing and in the medical bureaucracy at Walter Reed.

“The men and women recovering at Walter Reed and at other military hospitals have put their lives on the line and paid a considerable price for defending our country,” Gates said. “They battled our foreign enemies. They should not have to battle an American bureaucracy.”

“A bedrock principle of our military system is that we empower commanders with the responsibility, authority and resources necessary to carry out their mission,” Gates said. “With responsibility comes accountability.”

His comment suggested that senior officials in the Army chain of command would not be immune from disciplinary action.

Gates announced that two former Army secretaries, Togo West and Jack Marsh, would head an independent panel to review treatment and administrative processes at Walter Reed and the National Naval Medical Center at Bethesda, Md. Gates said the group has been asked to report its findings publicly within 45 days.

[Togo West Jr. served as Army Secretary and Secretary of Veterans Affairs in the Clinton Administration, and John O. Marsh Jr., was Army Secretary under President Reagan.]

“We are not going to wait 45 days to begin addressing these problems,” he said.

Defense officials have said that there are no allegations of systemic problems at Bethesda or other military hospitals, but Gates said the commission will be able to examine all military hospitals.

Gates said he was grateful to the reporters who brought the problems to light and said he was disappointed that the Defense Department had not found the problems earlier.

The defense secretary’s tone was in sharp contrast to comments Thursday by Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley, the Army surgeon general, who challenged the Post report as a “one-sided representation.” Kiley, who used to command Walter Reed and oversees the hospital as head of Medical Command, said there was no “failure of leadership.”

Gates did not criticize Kiley, but he said he was upset by the original articles and had not learned anything from Army officials that caused him to believe that the articles were wrong.

The review panel will deliver its report to Congress, Gates said.

Lawmakers have already begun drafting their own recommendations for an overhaul.

A new bill drafted by Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), a presidential candidate, and Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), a freshman member of the Armed Services Committee, seeks to simplify the paperwork for injured soldiers, force the Army to add more caseworkers, and increase the oversight of Walter Reed. A Democratic congressional staffer said the senators planned to introduce the bill next week.