VIDALIA — The after-hours clinic at Riverpark Medical Center is open for business but not fully staffed following the illness and hospitalization of its primary physician and director Dr. Ibrahim Seki, one of the center’s doctor-owners said Wednesday.

“We’re busy recruiting, but I have to say our service has been spotty since Dr. Seki became ill,” said Dr. Randy Tillman. “We have nurse practitioners and we have recruited a physician from Riverland (Medical Center) and have someone new coming in June.”

Tillman said he expects Seki to recover fully and to return to the clinic. “I’m not his physician and can’t give a medical report, but I do expect him to be back at the clinic.”

Patients obviously have missed Seki, Tillman said. “We have had numerous calls about him.”

Seki, a specialist in internal medicine, has been the primary physician and director of the clinic since it opened at the Vidalia riverfront facility in late 2005.

Within three months, the clinic expanded its hours and hired a second physician, Dr. Irina Gordey, to assist at the clinic.

“Dr. Gordey still assists at the clinic but she cannot take the place of Dr. Seki,” Tillman said.

However, both Tillman and Natchez Community Hospital CEO Tim Trottier are recruiting physicians to work along with Seki when he returns.

“We’re funding the recruitment of physicians to bring in to the clinic,” Trottier said.

Community Hospital and Riverpark formed a partnership in opening the clinic, benefiting both places. Tillman said Dr. Kevin Ingram, a primary care physician in Ferriday, is one of the new physicians helping at the clinic, which is open seven days a week, 3 to 11 p.m.

“Our hours are the same, but I have to say complete coverage may be intermittent for a little while,” Tillman said.

Trottier said the swift reaction at Riverland to getting help at the clinic was impressive.

“In a medically underserved area, the fact that they can have coverage at all at the clinic in a time like this is a compliment to the Riverpark staff and an indication of the professionalism in the medical community around Vidalia,” Trottier said.