KAHULUI — The Department of Veterans Affairs has hired a doctor and a physician's assistant for the Maui Community Based Outpatient Clinic in Kahului, bringing the facility to full staffing, according to The Maui News.

The hiring of Dr. James Lockyer and physician's assistant Norman Mallory comes after a full-time doctor was dismissed from the clinic in early May and Maui veterans staged sign-waving protests late that month and in June. The clinic has had problems with retaining and recruiting doctors. Replacing one doctor who left the clinic earlier took several months.

Mallory began work last week, and Lockyer started seeing patients early this week.

Rogelio "Roger" Evangelista, a disabled Vietnam veteran and president of the Maui County Veterans Council, said Maui veterans are pleased to have a second physician, but they're worried that this doctor, like others before him, won't stay for long, and they question how the physician's assistant will fit in.

"It's good that they finally got a full staff here on Maui," he said yesterday.

Veterans still believe the Maui clinic is busy enough to have a third full-time doctor, he added.

Mitch Skaggerberg, president of the Vietnam Veterans of Maui County, said he went to the Maui clinic for an appointment on Tuesday and had an opportunity to observe it fully staffed and with improved morale.

"They're feeling very good that it's fully staffed," he said Wednesday. "I had a sense that there was some relief."

Skaggerberg said he was relieved that recruiting a new doctor took only a couple of months, rather than the several months it took last time the clinic had to replace a physician.

"They moved real quickly in getting a doctor here," he said. "They really realized they had to replace the doctor, and they did it. Hats off to the VA management for doing that."

Skaggerberg said he was seen by a physician's assistant and found him to be "well qualified, very knowledgeable."

"I felt I was handled real well by him," he said.

Regarding the new doctor, "it will take a while for the new doctor to get to know us," he said.

Fred Ballard, public affairs officer with the VA Pacific Islands Health Care System, said that with the Maui clinic now fully staffed, it will be possible for registered nurse practitioner Kate Harper-Schmidt to begin providing home-based primary care.

"She actually makes house calls," Ballard said.

Evangelista was enthusiastic about veterans receiving care at home. He said Maui veterans learned last year during a hearing with U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka that Kauai veterans were getting home care.

"We've been trying to get this house-call thing ever since we had this hearing with Senator Akaka," he said.

The clinic now has two primary-care physicians, Dr. William Michaels and Lockyer; Harper-Schmidt in the nurse practitioner position; and Mallory, the physician assistant.

Lockyer is a board-certified internist with 20 years of experience. He has practiced on Kauai for many years, and his experience includes working to improve medical care to homeless and rural populations.

Mallory has more than nine years of experience, most recently at the VA Medical Center in Togus, Maine. In his spare time, he's an avid ocean kayaker.

Maui veterans have been critical of Veterans Affairs officials, saying more should have been done to retain the doctor who left in May. Ballard earlier said she was let go because she didn't fully meet employment requirements during her probationary period.

Veterans say they've seen at least three full-time doctors leave the clinic on Hoohana Street in about seven years.

Dr. James Hastings, director of the VA Pacific Island Health Care System, said last month that a doctor was flown in from Oahu twice a week to help the Maui clinic staff. The workload was redistributed, but scheduled patients were seen, he said.

Both Evangelista and Skaggerberg credited Akaka, U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye and Rep. Mazie Hirono for urging the Department of Veterans Affairs to take quick action.

Brian Perry can be reached at bperry@mauinews.com. Additional Maui News store are posted online at www.mauinews.com