Dialysis for Wairoa
Marianne Gillingham
Wairoa will get a community-based dialysis centre as early as August, with help from the Hawke's Bay District Health Board, while renal patients in the Tairawhiti District Health Board area might have to wait another three years for a similar service in Gisborne.
Between eight and 10 people in the Wairoa district are having dialysis treatment, with another 18 expected
to require treatment in two to three years.
This is less than half the number believed to require the service in Gisborne but TDH chief executive Jim Green says there is not enough funding for a satellite treatment centre in Gisborne.
Instead, some people with chronic kidney failure regularly have to travel and stay at Waikato Hospital, where accommodation alone is believed to be costing the TDH at least $460 a patient each week.
The imposition on lives of those affected has prompted considerable distress in this district.
This week The Herald received feedback from a 16-year-old Tolaga Bay student recently diagnosed with Nephritis Type 1 kidney disease, possibly brought on by a throat infection two years ago.
"After spending around three months in Starship Hospital, I was allowed home. I now live in Tolaga Bay with my family and I have been lucky enough to regain enough kidney function to come off dialysis," the young man said.
"Had I not been so lucky, I would have had to make many visits to Waikato Hospital because there is no renal unit in Gisborne.
"Eventually, my kidneys will give up and I will need dialysis and/or a transplant. Knowing I will be separated from my family is a frightening thought I have to look forward to," he said in a letter to The Herald this week.
"I feel sorry for others out there in a similar situation to me."
But TDH has consistently said haemodialysis will not be an option in Gisborne for at least three years.
"This is a specialised service that requires the input of clinical staff,
back-up services and equipment," Mr Green told The Herald earlier this year.
"We do not have the expertise or available funding to provide it.
"Instead, like many other specialised services, we fund it out of the district."
In Wairoa, kidney patients and their families started their own dialysis society. It has raised $60,000 towards running a centre for the first two years.
A member has acquired a building in Wairoa's main street, Marine Parade, which will be leased back to Wairoa Dialysis Society.
Wairoa Waikaremoana Maori Trust Board has agreed to underwrite the rent for the first year, with other organisations also contributing grants.
The Hawke's Bay DHB has agreed to provide and maintain three dialysis machines, which is enough to treat 18 people.
At present, patients have to travel from as far away as Lake Waikaremoana to Hastings three times a week to hook up to the machines.