WASHINGTON – Persistent complaints about the treatment of patients at the Togus veterans hospital mental health unit have prompted Maine’s congressional delegation to ask the regional Veterans Administration director to personally take the reins of an inquiry.

Staff in the center’s mental health unit began noting problems with admitting psychiatric patients last April at the Chelsea-based hospital outside Augusta, according to Helen Hanlon, the union president representing Togus employees.

“We were hearing from employees that there were available beds, but that patients were being turned away,” said Hanlon, a nurse who has been working at the Veterans Administration Center at Togus for 20 years.

“One of the issues was trying to find out how many were being turned away and what happened to them afterwards,” she said in a phone interview Thursday.

Last September, Hanlon said she decided to ask for a congressional investigation into the matter, but delayed that effort at the suggestion of hospital management. She instead agreed to first help launch an internal review by staff to see how the center’s procedures could best be addressed.

Despite the review, many of the recommendations for more efficient communications, staffing and admittance procedures at the mental health section have yet to be fully adopted, she said.

The hospital’s director, John Sims, believes otherwise. He said that after the final internal report was completed at the end of December, some “major” suggestions have been adopted and “follow up pieces” are in the process of being made.

“As a matter of fact, we were making changes to how we admit mental health patients even as the review was taking place,” Sims said. “By all accounts, because of the changes, we have seen improvement in mental health inpatient services.”

While Hanlon agrees some changes have been for the better, she said underlying issues persist, including concerns about psychiatrists who will be rotated in their responsibilities between inpatient and outpatient services.

“On April 1, they are planning to shift staff,” she said. “We don’t think that’s very good for the continuity of care. It’s hard for patients to get used to a new provider every 30 days.”

Hanlon said that the policy may signal an even larger change – the phasing out of inpatient care, which in part prompted her renewed effort on March 22 to request intervention from Maine’s congressional delegation.

“It is my sincere belief that patient care at the Togus hospital is far less than what veterans deserve and expect,” she wrote, adding that “management publicly touts the wonderful quality of care, while in the background deny care and plan to shut off availability to more and more veterans.”

Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, first took the initiative to write her own letter last Monday to Dr. Jeannette Chirico-Post, director of the Veterans Administration New England Healthcare System.

“I feel this is an extremely sensitive and alarming situation that requires an official explanation,” Snowe wrote.

Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican, and Democratic representatives John Baldacci and Tom Allen sent similar requests on Thursday.

The tension over the mental health clinic comes at a time when veterans hospitals around the country are facing tighter and tighter budget constraints even as demand for health services grows. The problem is particularly acute in New England, where an elderly veteran population in need of medical care is growing.

“Right now, we have 1,800 on a waiting list for primary care,” Sims said. “There is tremendous demand.”

In 1998, Maine’s congressional delegation requested an investigation of Togus because of complaints about inadequate care throughout the hospital. Since that time, the center has added staff for inpatient and outpatient care.