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Petition
Presented May 19, 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.
It gives me great
pleasure to rise and have a comment again today and
present the ninth petition on behalf of the residents of
the area from Rose Blanche to LaPoile, right on up to
the Codroy Valley, and that is with respect to dialysis
services. I have made this petition a number of times.
The people out that way, by the way, including the Town
Council of Port aux Basques, are waiting even for a
letter of acknowledgement from the Minister of Health
and Community Services that he is aware of this problem.
Everybody out there is, of course, particularly the
patients and the families that are impacted by this
situation.
We have, at any given
time, eight to ten people who commute from their homes
to Stephenville or Corner Brook - usually it is Corner
Brook - to avail of the dialysis services. Three times a
week, regardless of what the weather is, they are
required to do this. Many of them need someone to travel
with them. They need an escort because they are just not
physically capable of handling the trip themselves. Some
of them are not in a position to drive, for example.
Some of them commute by way of taxicab. Others have
their family commute with them. In any case, the bottom
line is that we need to have some kind of treatment
facility available in the Port aux Basques region.
The minister, as I say,
does not seem to be aware of it, even, let alone trying
to resolve it, but the people out there came up with
their own resolution of it, and solution to the problem,
if the minister were prepared to listen. For example,
you need both a technical component and an equipment
component. The people in that area have already said
they would be prepared to raise the money for the
equipment themselves. We have staff there in the
facility who are prepared to be trained to provide the
dialysis. We realize it takes some period of time. For
example, you would need eight or ten people, of course,
to have a rollover in case of vacations and whatever.
The staff there are prepared to undergo that training.
It takes anywhere from six to eight weeks to do the
training. We realize you cannot do it all at one time,
but they are prepared to go about it in a rational,
logical fashion, so that is there, Mr. Speaker.
Again, we have not had as
much as an acknowledgment from the minister. Maybe if he
can at least let us know that he is tuned in and aware
of the problem, we can certainly discuss the details of
the solution with him. The folks at Western Health are
now engaged. I understand that they have, in fact,
gotten a committee together, finally, and we are looking
at where to put it into the building. Apparently it
takes a certain amount of space to accommodate the
equipment. To do this you need chairs for the people who
are receiving the treatment and so on, and that study is
underway. We are also aware that there are different
kinds of dialysis for different people. Some can avail
of home dialysis; others need to have the satellite type
treatment. We realize that, and that is being worked
out; but, to get things rolling, we at least need to
have a commitment from the minister and the department
that once these solutions are finalized they are
prepared to back it. Otherwise, we may have a lot of
labour in vain.
Obviously, the people who
need this treatment on a daily basis are certainly
entitled to avail of medical services in this Province
as well as anyone else located anywhere else in this
Province.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. |
