MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Opposition House Leader.

MR. KELVIN PARSONS: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I appreciate an opportunity to deliver a petition again from the residents of the southwestern part of the Province running basically from La Poile, Rose Blanche, Burnt Islands, Isle aux Morts, Port aux Basques, Cape Ray, and it is with respect to the lack of dialysis services in that particular area.

I said, the last day I rose on this petition - I believe this is my sixty-eighth time of presenting this petition – that I thought that was the only region of the Province that did not have such a service, but I stand corrected. I understand from an article that I read from the Member for Labrador West that he is also lacking such a service in his area. He can certainly appreciate as well the hardship and the stress that is caused to the residents of your district when they cannot avail of these services.

I do believe those are the only two areas of the Province today that people cannot access this service within a reasonable distance. He, of course, has impediments when it comes to air travel and so on. In our case we have geography, and weather being the primary one.

We had individuals - and I do not mind mentioning his name; I have been asked to mention his name in fact - Mr. Edward Keeping. He has been in touch with the minister directly himself. He has been in touch with me numerous times. He keeps me updated as to the expense that he has incurred, and the trauma and stress that it is causing his family.

As we indicated before, there are certain components that go into providing this service. Of course, you have to have the physical facility; we have that at Dr. Charles L. LeGrow. The people of the area are committed to raise the funds to buy the equipment. The staff at the hospital are prepared to undergo the training to do it. We do not know what else is missing. We understand that a report has been done by the doctors at LeGrow and submitted to Western, and that Western has submitted that to the department. Hopefully, if there are any budgetary considerations that are necessary in order to do this - because we understand that the operational piece in terms of physical infrastructure, equipment that is needed, and the training that is needed to administer it would, in fact, be available.

We have made a lot of strides. Nobody is disagreeing that we have made a lot of investments in health care in this Province in the last number of years. We would certainly be the first to see that as well, but this is one piece of the health care puzzle that, albeit is not overly expensive in order to operate, it comes down to basically preparation and getting the equipment in place and the trained staff in place. It is probably one of the most aggravating conditions that you can have. Hopefully in this Budget – and, again, it is not only the hope of Mr. Keeping; it is the hope of every family that has ever had to suffer through this affliction of dialysis and having to travel.

Anyone who lives there and is familiar with the weather, it is not like going down the street, for example, to see your doctor. This particular individual - you have to get in your car in the winter months, any time from October until April, and travel to Corner Brook three times a week. You do not have much left in your day when you have to leave home at six o’clock in the morning and you get home at eight o’clock in the night. You are taking all that time to travel to Corner Brook to get hooked up and to get administered. You get home and you get twenty-four hours, basically, to rest up and then you have to turn around and do it again the next day. That is your life.

Now, he says he does not have a life, and I think he is quite right. That is not life when you spend three days resting from what you went through and three days actually getting your treatment.

Hopefully there will be funding available. As we have said, we have not heard anything from the minister as to why it cannot be done. We have not heard anything from the Western Authority as to why it cannot be done, from either a financial or an operational or a technological point of view, so we are just wondering, what is the hassle and what is the problem here with getting this achieved?

Anyway, we look forward to seeing the Budget on Monday, and hopefully there will be some good news for the residents of southwestern Newfoundland in regard to the dialysis.