Hawaii’s governor has released $140,000 for a physician training program designed to help ease the state’s worsening doctor shortage.
Gov. Linda Lingle made the announcement Tuesday at the Hawaii Physician Workforce Summit, during which roughly 130 healthcare leaders learned that the state is already short at least 500 doctors across all specialties and will lose more than 130 each year as its aging physician workforce retires.
Lingle announced that $70,000 would be set aside for the Hawaii Island Family Health Center residency training program for fiscal year 2009-2010, and another $70,000 would be set aside for the fiscal year 2010-2011. The funding will be used for Hilo residency development expenses and clinical faculty recruitment.
“With the growing physician shortage we face in Hawaii, this is a crucially important step forward,” said Jerris Hedges, dean of the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine, in remarks carried by the Honolulu Star.
“It’s incredibly good news,” added State Sen. Josh Green, an emergency physician and president of the Hawaii Independent Physicians Association.
Following Lingle’s announcement, the TriWest Healthcare Alliance announced that it would match it with $500,000 per year for five years for an interdisciplinary training program for medical residents, nurse practitioners and undergraduates. Hedges said state officials hope the TriWest matching model can be used for other medical residency programs in Hawaii, like one at Wahiawa General Hospital.
The Big Island residency training program requires newly graduated doctors or residents to spend three years in family practice under guidance of the medical school’s Department of Family Practice and Community Health. The program expects to graduate four family medicine specialists each year – with officials hoping they open their own practices on the Big Island after their training is completed.
Hedges pointed out that the program has lost $6 million in budget cuts during the last two years. He noted the school has no physician assistant program as well, but is working with two Oregon colleges to train six Hawaii students per year.