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SACRAMENTO — Some rural areas in California have such a shortage of medical specialists that some children must wait two years or more for routine surgeries, such as tonsillectomies, two lawmakers said Tuesday. 

A bill by Assembly members George Runner, R-Lancaster, and Virginia Strom-Martin, D-Duncans Mills, would encourage doctors to volunteer for “mercy missions” to care for patients in those areas. 

Doctors organized two such missions to Shasta County recently to help about 100 children who needed ear, nose and throat surgeries. Pamela Jones of Redding said her daughter was left “high and dry” when her surgeon moved. Redding has two ear, nose and throat specialists to handle surgeries, she said, and the waiting list included hundreds of patients. The family waited for two years until Danielle Jones’ simple tonsil and adenoid inflammation worsened and she could no longer breathe through her nose, her mother said. 

“Playing the clarinet was the biggest joy that she had, but she couldn’t play anymore,” Pamela Jones said. 

To prove she has recovered, Danielle Jones played a short clarinet solo at a Capitol press conference Tuesday. 

Missions only put a Band-Aid on a larger problem – doctors leave because they aren’t paid enough to treat Medi-Cal patients, said Dr. Anny Murphy, a physician with the Shasta Community Health Center. 

“But I have real patients who can’t wait for that problem to be solved.” Murphy said. “So I’m willing to do whatever it takes to take care of that child right now in the office and this is one way to do it.” 

The bill would require the state Department of Health Services to solicit specialists for a registry of physicians willing to go travel on the missions. 

DHS would also raise private money for the program. Doctors would be paid by Medi-Cal, if the patient was enrolled in the program. Private money would pay for uninsured patients, but physicians would also donate their time, Runner said. 

The California Medical Association, which represents physicians, supports the bill, which CMA President Frank Staggers called “only one of the solutions” needed to improve access to medical care. 

CMA also wants a 20 percent increase in Medi-Cal reimbursement rates, financial help for hospitals that have lost money on emergency room services and incentives to recruit more doctors to the state. 

On the Net: 

Read the bill, AB548, at www.leginfo.ca.gov