As a state-side physician who loves to regularly visit Maui, I am shocked that the premier destination in Hawaii provides strikingly inadequate health care delivery. Like tens of thousands of other visitors to the island, I was blissfully unaware that my family and I were vacationing in a “second world” health community.
My one brush with the present hospital was sobering, but fortunately involved only a facial laceration in a child I took to the ER. I mistakenly thought that we arrived there on an unusually busy evening. . . . Thank goodness we didn’t need that over-taxed ER to treat a car accident, chest pain, a critically sick baby, or worse.
I continue to follow the second hospital issue through the eyes of a doctor experienced in public, private, and HMO delivery of care. I applaud Dr. George Martin’s letter – “Maui Facing Healthcare Crisis” – he so excellently presented the case for new emergency and hospital facilities on Maui. If only the health officials in Honolulu listened to their own medical colleagues on Maui, then we could expect future visits to a Maui with health care standards equaling those on Oahu and in our home state.
”’Robert C. Hauck, MD, FAAP is the Emeritus Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Washington in Shoreline, WA. Reach him via email at mailto:haucks@earthlink.net”’
See related stories: “Maui Needs a Second Hospital – Please Be Our Champion” and “Nurses Leaving Maui”