Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced an independent review of the troubled outpatient health care system at Walter Reed Army Medical Center following a tour of the facility Friday.

Gates denounced the conditions as “unacceptable.”

The eight-member bipartisan review panel will have unrestricted access to facilities and personnel. Its findings and recommendations are to be reported within 45 days and will be made public, Gates said.

Some lower-level Walter Reed officials have been dismissed as a result of administrative and maintenance problems at Building 18, an outpatient treatment facility.

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Gates did not disclose the identities of those people.

“[Service members] should not have to recuperate in substandard housing, nor should they be expected to tackle mountains of paperwork and bureaucratic processes during this difficult period for themselves and their families,” Gates said. “They battled our foreign enemies; they should not have to battle American bureaucracy.”

The reports, first published last week in The Washington Post, thrust the government’s treatment of injured soldiers into the national spotlight.

White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said Tuesday that day there was “plenty of outrage” over conditions at Walter Reed, adding that the administration planned to “get to the bottom of it.” Snow said

President Bush had been aware of conditions in the wards he’d visited at Walter Reed, the Army’s premiere treatment facility for wounded servicemembers. But it was not clear if Bush visited Building 18.

“The President is committed — committed to these people, committed to men and women who have served. We need to make sure that whatever problems there are get fixed,” Snow said.

Seventy-six soldiers now live in Building 18, which has apartment-style residences with two bedrooms and a common kitchen and bathroom.

The Defense Department Friday also announced reforms to its disability evaluation system following complaints that it had been unfair.

The system is used to evaluate servicemembers’ disabilities and discharge or retain them.

Servicemembers who are discharged with at least a 30 percent disability receive disability retirement pay, medical benefits and commissary privileges. At less then 30 percent, veterans receive severance pay, but no benefits.

cmabeus@dcexaminer.com