The impending closures of Hawaii Medical Center hospitals in Ewa and Liliha is already being felt in a big way. 

Emergency rooms were closed on Monday. And now organ transplant organizations are at a loss for who will take the Liliha hospital’s place.

HMC East housed Hawaii’s only organ transplant center, performing about 70 transplants a year, according to HawaiiNewsNow. While they wait as long as a year for a new Hawaii center to get up and running, Hawaii patients will have to bide their time — or sign up on mainland waiting lists. The closest state is California, where there are 21 transplant centers. 

From HawaiiNewsNow:

Even if another hospital takes up where Hawaii Medical Center left off, organ transplant patients will have to wait.

“It’s my understanding that it could be as soon as three months or as long as one year,” said Glen Hayashida, chief executive officer of the National Kidney Foundation of Hawaii.