Step forward

Dear editor:
I’d like to answer John Bekeris’ letter of last week about our new hemo-dialysis unit being a costly “handout.”
Right now, we have about 20 patients going elsewhere for this service. One person I know the government, through OHIP, pays them $112 per trip. This gives them about 25 cents a mile for the miles travelled. We all know with the price of gas, etc., that this will not cover their expenses.
But going back a bit that $112 times 156 (the number of trips a year) gives us almost $17,500. A tidy sum, and there are 20 others to consider.
That makes $350,000 now spent on medical necessary travel that could be saved with a unit here in the district.
Well, let’s look at the unit proposed to be operated here. The establishing of a unit here is the small cost. It likely will cost as much per year to operate it as to build it. However, the cost per patient is similar in a small unit here as in a larger unit per patient.
The big saving is in transportation. I would suggest the unit will pay for itself in the first year of operation by the savings of transportation.
Leaving costs aside, there is the human side to this issue. Having been in the hospital myself this past year for some time, I can attest to the fact one gets better quicker close to home where their friends and relatives can drop in for a visit.
For a dialysis patient, there is the fact that all of a sudden they must spend half their time driving and not able to attend to their daily duties.
There is the individual cost to be considered, not just OHIP, and each cost can interfere with the patients’ ability to get well.
I’ve worked for the past six years to get this unit built here and proud of it. I see it as a step forward in humane care of our sick.
Sincerely,
Hugh C. Masson
Emo, Ont.