NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — Sentara Health is responding to critics who claim it should be investing more money in programs and people as local patients tire of hearing that “the doctor won’t see you now.”

While the doctor shortage is a nationwide problem, at the local level critics put part of the blame on the area’s largest healthcare system.

“The community needs to step up to Sentara and say, ‘Hey you do good at a lot of things, but you haven’t done a good job at recruiting physicians, and that’s your number one obligation to this community'”, said Bruce Holbrook, consultant and partner emeritus at Dixon Hughes Goodman LLP.

Holbrook and retired neurologist Dr. Armistead Williams argue that Sentara could foot the bill for local medical school students to stay here.

“Their profits are about $1 million a day over the last, over a five year period,” Williams said. “So that, yes, if they said this is something we really want to do, they could … in two weeks get a third of the class out debt free.”

10 On Your Side took that suggestion to Sentara.

“There are huge investments occurring in Hampton Roads and, you know, it’s possible that we’ve not done a good enough job communicating that to the public,” said Dr. Michael Hooper, Sentara Norfolk General Hospital vice president and chief medical officer.

Hooper said that, in the past 20 years, Sentara doubled support for residency positions, and last month pledged another $350 million over the next decade to EVMS-ODU health sciences.

“A number of support efforts in that $350 million package [will] train physicians right here in Hampton Roads and then employ them at our hospital,” Hooper said. “So I think there are a lot of things that we are doing right now to close the gap that the community is feeling.”

Sentara said it currently funds roughly 240 residency programs. After the expansion, it will fund more than 400 positions.

Sentara’s critics also question why the nonprofit took money made in Hampton Roads and invested it in hospitals outside the community, even in other states.

“I mean, clearly our our priority has been growing in Virginia, but yes, growing to stay competitive in the industry is something that we are doing,” Hooper said.

Sentara’s future plans include establishing new residency programs at four hospitals in Virginia and North Carolina.

Those hospitals are:

  • Sentara CarePlex Hospital in Hampton
  • Sentara Williamsburg Regional Medical Center in Williamsburg
  • Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center in Woodbridge 
  • Sentara Albemarle Medical Center in Elizabeth City, N.C.

Hooper said post pandemic, Sentara is also restructuring pay and resources to retain the healthcare workers they have.

Money alone, however, will not solve the shortage. On that, and on this, they can all agree.

A cure will take time.