Two Retirements At Montauk Medical Center Leave Residents Without Health Care

With the recent departure of Montauk’s only full-time medical practitioners at the end of 2014, the hamlet is now without any staff doctor or physician assistant, leaving residents without local, accessible health care.

But officials at Southampton Hospital, which owns the center, said not to worry—they are planning on hiring someone before the influx of the summer population.

Dr. Tony Knott, who had been with the Montauk Medical Center for 11 years, left the practice at the end of November, and physician’s assistant Ken Dodge finished up his final year on December 31. Now, according to the hospital, doctors are rotating shifts to accommodate patients.

As of now, the Montauk Medical Center is open five days a week, Monday through Friday, and other doctors affiliated with the Meeting House Lane Medical Practice take shifts covering appointments in Montauk, according to Southampton Hospital spokesperson Marsha Kenny, adding that the hospital hopes to hire a full-time doctor before Memorial Day.

“Before the summer? I could be dead by then,” said Montauk resident Mary Emmons on Friday afternoon at the senior center after being told about the hospital’s plan.

And Ms. Emmons isn’t alone in her frustration. Montauk is home to more than 3,000 year-round residents, according to the U.S. Census, many of them elderly.

“You just have to have a doctor in the area, especially on a day like today, when there’s snow on the ground,” said longtime Montauk resident Francis Carroll, while playing dominoes at the senior center with some of her girlfriends. “It’s dangerous not to.”

And while Southampton Hospital claims doctors from other offices are “pitching in” to pick up shifts, a phone call attempting to get an appointment at the Montauk Medical Center on Friday was unsuccessful. A receptionist said that the center was open, but no doctor was available on Friday, January 9, or any day this week. She suggested calling the Amagansett office.

“Forget it,” said another Montauk resident, Aster Stein, of trying to make an appointment at the Montauk facility. “My son tried to make an appointment, and they told him to go to Amagansett because they didn’t know when someone would be in.”

Ms. Kenny also said scheduling an appointment in Amagansett “shouldn’t be a problem,” because “there are so few people out there” this time of year.

However, an attempt to get an appointment at the Amagansett office also failed.

The Amagansett practice is only seeing patients three days a week, according to a receptionist there, because Dr. Charles Defraia also runs a private practice in Riverhead. The office’s physician’s assistant, Gene Connoly, is out on medical leave.

“We’re booked through the 30th,” the receptionist said, adding that Dr. Richard Panebianco of Southampton also recently retired and that practice has been referring clients to the Amagansett office. “Dr. Knott gave ample time for his retirement, and they still don’t have a full-time person in there,” she added.

Anita Peel, Montauk resident and secretary at the senior center, said she fears that the absence of a doctor is also weighing heavily on the emergency service providers in the area, who are already strapped for resources and operating primarily on a volunteer basis.

“Some people do abuse the system and call them when their kid has a splinter in their finger,” she said. “But when you have someone suddenly ill who can’t drive themselves to the doctor, but they’re not having a heart attack, you’re pretty much forced to call 911 so they can bring you to a doctor or hospital.”

However, according to Montauk Ambulance Chief Ken Alversa, the absence of a doctor in Montauk may cut the number of calls for his crews. “We haven’t seen any strain yet, and I don’t foresee it really affecting us very much,” he said on Tuesday. “If anything, it will draw people to other doctors out of town, and it’ll probably lower our call volume as people look for new doctors elsewhere.”

As for the somewhat gray area of an emergency and just being too ill to drive to the doctor, Mr. Alversa said he’s heard of many residents in Montauk making arrangements with friends or family members to take them to another doctor, instead of calling an ambulance.

“People don’t usually know when they need to go to a hospital,” he said. “It’s usually the doctor to make that decision, so, chances are, they’d be brought to another doctor, outside of Montauk, and then the corresponding district would bring them to the hospital if necessary.’

However, because it is only two weeks into January, Mr. Alversa said the ambulance company won’t know the increase in numbers, if there is one, until next year: “I mean, yes, it could be a strain on us, but I think it will be okay.”