Bed bugs force closure of urgent care at veterans centre

MANCHESTER, N.H. – Bed bugs have forced the closure of the urgent care clinic at a troubled New Hampshire veterans medical centre.

New Hampshire Public Radio reports the clinic closed Wednesday after bugs were found in the waiting room and in an exam room at the Manchester Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

Hospital director Al Montoya says the situation did not qualify as an emergency and patients were treated at another location. The hospital’s pest control contractor hasn’t responded to requests for comment.

The state’s only veterans hospital came under scrutiny after a Boston Globe report in July revealed allegations of substandard care. Doctors had described a fly-infested operating room, surgical instruments that weren’t always sterilized and patients not properly treated.

A task force has been formed to recommend changes at the facility.