Local outcry needed for dialysis

If area residents wish to have a renal dialysis unit in Fort Frances, they’re going to have start writing to the Ministry of Health.
That’s the message nephrologist Dr. William McCready and nurse Barbara Adams of the Thunder Bay Regional Dialysis Program had to say to a group of doctors, nurses and other community members at a meeting last night at La Verendrye Health Centre
McCready and Adams are interested in establishing a satellite unit in Fort Frances, which would treat about eight patients per year for end-stage renal failure and provide hemo-dialysis.
But to do that, they’re going to need local support, they explained. And lots of it.
“The Ministry of Health is well-aware Fort Frances is agitated about this issue,” Dr. McCready said. “And the Ministry of Health responds to the public, writing and phoning their MPPs, not physicians.”
McCready suggested once the proposal for a satellite unit here was into the ministry, letters of support would help guarantee the proposal’s success.
But Northern Ontario isn’t the only part of the province facing a shortage of dialysis stations. McCready pointed out that with the number patients requiring hemo-dialysis doubling about every 10 years, there aren’t enough stations anywhere.
“Everybody’s behind the eight ball,” he noted. “The government doesn’t understand the end-stage renal failure population is growing. They’re into downsizing.”
The cost for hemo-dialysis isn’t cheap. McCready said it costs $45,000 a year to keep these patients alive, plus an extra $10,000 for medication.
But Adams said the benefits of allowing these patients to stay at home during their treatments was well worth the cost, as demonstrated by their satellite clinic in Sioux Lookout.
“We actually saw the life expectancy for some people be longer,” she added. “People need to get back to their small communities. They need to get back to their families and friends.”