Dr. Tom Workman, director of the emergency room at the Cambridge City Hospital, says that UHS is limited in the kinds of emergencies it can handle.

"We see people when they're [in] unstable [condition]. We see things UHS can't handle," says Workman. "It probably depends on who's covering the service at UHS."

Doctors say that in making care accessible, they are concerned with maintaining diversity within their staff of care providers. Many women, according to doctors and officials, have expressed a desire to see female doctors. And in interviews, some students say they are not happy with UHS's staff diversity.

"Universally, women are often treated more condescendingly," says a female senior. "You have to expend much more energy than [men] do."

Some female students say the sensitivity of the care giver is just as important as the quality of care they receive.

One senior, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said she had been treated by three different male doctors for a mysterious stomach ailment she caught overseas. One of the doctors, she says, questioned her toughness.

As a result, the senior says she has more faith in Nancy Lehrhaulpt, her nurse practitioner, than in the doctors.

"She's a goddess. Every woman on this campus should be going to her for OB/GYN stuff," says the senior. "It was her sensitivity that made me feel a lot better."

UHS officials say they are doing everything they can to be more responsive to such concerns. In responsive to complaints in UHS's own undergraduate survey from last year, Rosenthal says UHS hired its lone female gynecologist.

And at the Law School, where faculty diversity has been an issue, UHS responded with an affirmative action hiring of a Black psychiatrist.

About one year ago, Mary M. Tinkham, assistant director in the international Office, held a seminar for UHS doctors at which international students talked about problems they'd had with the health service because of cultural misunderstandings.

A lack of diversity of races and ethnicities among the doctors is potentially a problem in a health service caring for a diverse community like Harvard's. While 26 of the 66 UHS doctors are women, seven are minorities, according to the 1993 Affirmative Action report.

"One of the problems is that no one wants to be one of a few," says Victor, a female UHS internist. "The issue is that this may not be the most welcoming atmosphere for a minority internist to join. We want to be as welcoming as possible."

But some suggest that in terms of care and patient satisfaction, some kinds of diversity are more important than others.

"I've heard more patients requesting providers who were women than were minorities," nurse practitioner Donna Campbell says.