‘It’s Horrendous’: The Deaths Of 2 Doctors Deepen The Void In Rural Health Care Access 0 Nearly half of Molokai’s population lost their primary care physician in a state that has long struggled to attract and retain medical professionals.

Doctors have long been in short supply on Molokai, where residents must board a plane to access specialized care and routine treatment is propped up by a revolving door of fly-in physicians.

But for decades primary care on this island of fewer than 7,000 residents was buoyed by a pair of family medicine physicians who embedded themselves in the community, providing comprehensive, day-to-day health care to nearly half the population.

Then came an unexpected hurdle: They died.

In a span of three months late last year, Dr. William Longfellow Thomas, 57, and Dr. Noa Emmett Aluli, 78, died, leaving thousands of Molokai patients without a primary care physician.

No one is waiting in the wings to replace them.

‘It’s Horrendous’: The Deaths Of 2 Doctors Deepen The Void In Rural Health Care Access