Despite losing four full-time clinical doctors since July 2005, University Health Services Executive Director Kathleen Poi said Monday the student health-care provider would return to full staff by next fall.

According to Poi, UHS might be able to fill the vacant full-time positions as early as this summer, as one physician has already been hired and several other "very interested" candidates have been interviewed.

"We're very optimistic these vacancies will be filled in a relatively short amount of time," Poi said. "I expect that we should have these new folks on board by this summer."

Poi added that because the physician departures were "spread out" over a period of time, UHS has been able to fill those positions with a "number of part-time" staff.

"These people did not leave all at once," Poi said. "We've been able to fill in with a temporary staff to cover much of this … [a] really terrific staff committed to making sure patient care gets done."

However, UHS has recently come under attack for not being able to provide the necessary "patient care" to its student clientele.

An April 24 Wisconsin State Journal article reported that many University of Wisconsin students have experienced difficulty this year trying to receive treatment at UHS while the organization searches for new full-time physicians.

Monday, Poi refuted these claims, saying UHS staff has not heard any complaints from students that are different from those they received when the organization was fully staffed.

According to Poi, most student complaints involve not being able to see a doctor as "immediately" as they would have hoped, a complaint that existed before the vacancies.

"To walk in and be seen immediately is not realistic," Poi said.

For many students, however, not being able to see a doctor at UHS is a "big problem" facing the organization.

Last year, UW junior Brad Kasavana said he went to UHS hoping to see a doctor after falling ill with the flu, but was told he would have to wait a week to see one and then could only see a medical school resident.

Though he was not able to see a doctor, Kasavana said he was still able to receive suitable care.

"I'd prefer to see a doctor, certainly, but the care was satisfactory," Kasavana said. "I did get treatment, did get better because of the service. It just wasn't a doctor, which would've been way better."