Calling all orthopedic surgeons, pediatric specialists, obstetricians and psychiatrists: Hawaii Island needs you.
Calling all orthopedic surgeons, pediatric specialists, obstetricians and psychiatrists: Hawaii Island needs you.
Those specialties and more have been identified as pressing needs on the Big Island, according to the latest assessment of the state’s physician workforce.
Prepared by the Hawaii Physician Workforce Assessment Project through the University of Hawaii’s Area Health Education Centers, the annual report assesses the supply and demand for doctors on each island.
The latest data show that Hawaii actually gained four physicians in 2015, bringing the state total to 2,806. That’s unusual, because the last few years the state has typically lost physicians each year, largely because of doctors reaching retirement age.
However, as the population in Hawaii grows, demand for doctors increases by about 50 each year, so “this actually represents an expanding shortage of physician supply versus demand,” reads the December report prepared by Kelley Withy, the primary investigator with the Hawaii Physician Workforce Assessment Project.
The demand for doctors statewide stands at 3,310, meaning that Hawaii currently has 20 percent fewer physicians than it needs.
But on the Big Island, the shortage is even more pronounced. Estimates put Hawaii Island residents’ needs at 286 specialists, but currently only 137 are available. That represents a shortage of more than 52 percent.
Looked at as a percentage of the demand, some of the island’s most badly needed physicians include those in pediatric specialties including cardiology, gastroenterology, neurology and rheumatology. There are no doctors with those specialties currently working on the island, while just under three are estimated to be needed.
Orthopedic surgery also is sorely underrepresented. The demand on Hawaii Island currently stands at 14.6 doctors, with only 4.2 working here.
Other needs not currently being met include colorectal surgery, neonatal-perinatal, neurological surgery, plastic surgery, infectious disease, allergy and immunology, and more.
Dealing with such shortages will become increasingly more important as time goes on, Withy says, with 711 doctors across the state aged 65 or older.