WAILUKU — Hana Health Executive Director Cheryl Vasconcellos said that the organization will give up the county-managed physician's home in Hana to make room for proposed dialysis services in the building, The Maui News reported yesterday.

She said she hoped to relocate the doctor and the doctor's family by the end of the year.

"We have been asked to vacate the current physician home so dialysis may be able to proceed in that facility," Vasconcellos told members of the council's Land Use Committee last week as they reviewed an application for land use changes for the Hana Health Clinic's proposed expansion.

Vasconcellos did not specify what the county timetable is for giving up use of the home. County spokeswoman Mahina Martin said last week that the county has not served Hana Health a notice to vacate, but the county is continuing to explore the options for providing dialysis services in Hana.

She said it would be premature for the county to have the physician vacate the home by the end of the year.

Dialysis proponents also said they have not asked Hana Health to vacate the home.

The home in Wakiu is along the access road to the Hana Sanitary Landfill. It has been eyed by Hana dialysis proponents as a location for a dialysis treatment facility. They want to bring dialysis services to Hana so dialysis patients need not make the long trip to Central Maui for treatment several times a week. Hana Health has been occupying the home without a lease but as a historic practice.

Even though the home may be made available for a dialysis facility, there will need to be upgrades to plumbing and electrical systems as well as insurance issues to be worked out before it can used by a dialysis operator.

Lehua Cosma, founder of a citizens group wanting to bring dialysis to Hana, said that Hui Laulima O Hana will provide updated information to the public on its plans soon. She said it wasn't Hana Health's decision on when it must relinquish the home as it doesn't have a lease.

During discussions last Wednesday, Council Member Bill Medeiros reminded Vasconcellos that the decision on use of the house is the county's to make.

"You are not giving up anything. You don't have a lease," he said.

Vasconcellos explained that through the years the home has been provided to physicians willing to work in Hana. It was used by the state when the state Department of Health was responsible for operating the Hana Community Health Center.

Hana Health is the community board that bid to take over Hana Health Center when the state split off its community clinics and hospitals from the Department of Health to turn them over to the nonprofit Hawaii Health Systems Corp.

The management group has been criticized by Hana residents for not providing dialysis services in the remote community where a number of residents suffer kidney diseases requiring dialysis.

Hana Health resisted the appeals, saying that dialysis is a specialized treatment service that would further drain the resources of the Hana Health Clinic, prompting advocates to seek other options for setting up dialysis treatment.

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