KAHULUI, Maui — The Veterans Administration says it will soon begin interviewing applicants to fill a physician vacancy at its Maui outpatient clinic, but some veterans remain unhappy with the level of care they are receiving.

Staffing and other administrative issues at the Maui VA Clinic have long been a source of dissatisfaction for Roger Evangelista and other veterans who complain about lengthy waits for appointments, lack of continuity in treatment due to staff turnover, and unavailability of care on weekends.

Evangelista, a disabled Vietnam veteran, is president of the Maui County Veterans Council, representing 20 veterans groups. Yesterday, he joined about 25 other veterans in holding signs outside the Ho'ohana Street clinic.

Evangelista, 63, said the latest sore point with the VA is the departure of a well-liked doctor who was terminated May 5, leaving only a single full-time primary-care physician at the clinic.

"We're having problems. Every time we have a good doctor, they let them go," he said.

The veterans are especially frustrated because they lost another doctor in October 2006, with a replacement arriving in May 2007.

Fred Ballard, public affairs officer with the VA Pacific Islands Health Care System, said the physician who left in 2006 did so because of Maui's high cost of living, which remains a problem in recruiting doctors.

Ballard said the doctor recently let go after extensive review was terminated "because of failure to fully meet the requirements of employment during her probationary period."

Because of personnel privacy rules, he said he could not discuss the case in detail, but added the concerns did not involve questions about the doctor's medical skills.

The physician did not return an Advertiser phone call seeking comment.

With a temporary staff reduction, some sick veterans seeking treatment at the clinic are being referred instead to a toll-free phone number to talk to a nurse, according to Evangelista. One veteran who was turned away ended up being seen for a high fever at a hospital emergency room, he said.

Army veteran Renwick Adriano, 49, of Makawao, said VA medical services should be ready to answer the call, just as he and others were ready while in the armed forces.

"In the military, you're on call 24/7, ready to fight for your country. Can't we get the same treatment?" Adriano said.

There are about 10,000 veterans on Maui, 1,500 of whom are patients at the VA clinic, according to Ballard.

He said the agency so far is considering seven applicants — one from Hawai'i, six from the Mainland — to fill the vacancy at the Maui clinic, and that interviews "will start in a few days."

In the meantime, he said, "veteran access is being addressed by the full-time physician and nurse practitioner on site, a physician from the Honolulu clinic twice a week and a fee provider who has worked at the clinic on a periodic basis."

The clinic also regularly uses telemedicine consultations with doctors at the VA medical facilities in Honolulu, he said, and has a fully staffed mental health team that includes a psychiatrist, a psychologist, an addiction therapist and a mental health social worker.

Ballard said a new physician assistant is scheduled to transfer in from another VA facility in July, and a new fee provider has begun the credentialing process.

"We feel we have adequate resources in place to ensure veterans are taken care off in the most efficient and effective manner," he said. "We have resources in place and some that are coming to make sure they are all taken care of."

Maui veterans have long felt that their medical needs were neglected. Until the new Kahului facility opened in 2001, the VA operated a small outpatient clinic in Wailuku run by a registered nurse.

Patients suffered lengthy delays in seeing a VA doctor for treatment of serious medical problems or traveled on their own to the VA's Spark M. Matsunaga Medical Center on O'ahu.