Report critical of ex-leader at veterans home torn by COVID

By MARK PRATT
Associated Press

A new report says the leader of a veterans’ care center in Massachusetts where 76 veterans died after testing positive for the coronavirus in the spring of 2020 lacked both the leadership skills and the temperament to run such a facility. The 91-page state Inspector General’s report released Friday was also highly critical of the process that led to the hiring of Bennett Walsh as superintendent of the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home and of state oversight of the home following complaints about Walsh. The investigation that led to the report started pre-pandemic in 2019 in response to those complaints. A voicemail was left with Walsh’s attorney.