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Petition
Presented April 30, 2009
Dialysis Unit for Western Newfoundland
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MR. SPEAKER: The
hon. the Opposition House Leader.
MR. KELVIN PARSONS: Thank
you, Mr. Speaker.
I would like to take this
opportunity to present a petition on behalf of the
residents of Southwestern Newfoundland, particularly the
area from South Branch to Rose Blanche, but also down of
course to LaPoile and Grand Bruit as well, and that is
in regard to the dialysis, or lack of dialysis in that
particular area.
As we have indicated, we
cover off in that area about 12,000 to 15,000 people who
live in the region. All of them who need dialysis
services have to go to Corner Brook to get the service.
Now that usually involves about three times a week. I
believe there is some in Stephenville as well, I say to
the hon. Government House Leader. I believe there is in
Stephenville as well. Mr. Speaker, that involves at
least 400 to 500 round trip kilometres for anybody who
has to make that service. By the way, it is not through
your usual, regular travel. It, of course, has to take
you through the well-known famous Wreckhouse area.
Now we have been after
the minister for ten years trying to get him to pay some
attention to that particular area. The minister did in
fact meet with the town council and representatives of
that concern last year in Corner Brook. He told them
they would get a letter from him, still waiting for the
letter by the way. I talked to the minister about this
some months ago. He indicated to me that he would be
following up on it. I was asked as recently as
yesterday, again by people who are involved with this
issue, saying when are we going to get something back
from the minister? We have not had a response even since
last fall, six months ago.
The people in that area,
as I indicated, they are prepared to raise the funds to
buy the equipment. That is not an issue. There are staff
in the area who are prepared to train to operate the
equipment, staff who are long-term lifetime working
nursing people in that particular area. They cannot
understand why the government would not permit the
dialysis to be done at the Charles L. LeGrow Centre in
Port aux Basques if the people in that region who need
it and the community are prepared to support it, are
prepared to raise the funds to put the equipment there,
are prepared to train the staff to operate the
equipment.
We have nine or ten
people at any given time who use these machines, and to
do so every week of their life, it is just an onerous,
onerous situation to place these people in. Not only the
patients themselves, of course, but many of these people
have to have people who would accompany them. So you are
causing stress not only for the patients themselves but
also for the parents who are involved, the children of
these people who are involved. In fact, we had a
situation, many situations where over the years, in ten
years many people have had to leave town to move to
other places simply because they could not physically,
emotionally handle it any more. Not to say anything
about financially, because obviously, albeit there might
be some aids and supports from government to these
people, it never offsets totally the cost of having to
do this.
Now anybody who has had a
family member affected by this type of disease, of
course, knows just how dreaded it is. We look with some
hope - in fact, when I heard the minister last week
talking about the possibility of using home dialysis
that was very positive. That was the first time that the
minister indicated and the spokesperson for the
association said we might be able to use that more often
for more people. I thought that was very positive, felt
very encouraged by that, but when we go back and check
it out with the people who are currently using it,
apparently these people cannot avail of that home
service. There becomes a point when you cannot use the
home dialysis treatment facility and equipment. Albeit,
anyone who could, of course, would love to do it at
home. It gets rid of the travel, it gets rid of the cost
associated with the travel, and you can live a much more
normal life in that situation. The home dialysis is not
possible for these people at the present time. They have
been waiting ten years for the minister to give some
kind of answer. He has not even given an answer that is
defensible, or Western Health has not given an answer
that is defensible.
I realize, Mr. Speaker,
my time has come to an end on this particular petition,
so thank you very much. |
