Some Dialysis patients waiting more than a year in WA for suitable treatment

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Growing waiting times for kidney dialysis in regional western Australia are forcing first nations' people to leave their communities to seek treatment in Perth. In some regions, dialysis patients have to wait more than a year to access treatment.

Transcript

00:00 Tootsie Daniel is getting a ride from her home in Roeburn to the closest kidney dialysis

00:07 centre in Port Hedland.

00:09 It's a six hour return trip, a journey she takes three times a week.

00:14 I had problems getting people to take me to Port Hedland to do dialysis.

00:19 So I remember that first week when I came back, I missed that dialysis for five weeks.

00:26 It was like so much unbearable for me.

00:29 In the past, the Yindjibandi elder has had to travel to Perth for treatment.

00:34 It did affect me and I'm thinking like, oh, I'm going to miss seeing my family and I'm

00:39 going to miss my community and miss everything that's happening in the community.

00:43 Lucy May Bulley had to leave home for extended periods for dialysis.

00:48 She now lives in Carnarvon where the average wait time for dialysis is 469 days.

00:54 I needed to wait for someone to die because there's only four chairs.

00:57 The average wait time for a dialysis chair in Port Hedland is 423 days.

01:03 Elizabeth Barry has been on the wait list for over a year.

01:07 It really put me in a bad position mentally.

01:12 Health services say a dialysis service is urgently needed in Karratha to reduce wait

01:17 lists.

01:18 There's an underestimate of demand over many, many years and we have an increasing number

01:24 of people requiring dialysis, including a lot more younger people.

01:28 So you know, all of that sort of created the perfect storm.

01:32 The WA Country Health Service has refused multiple ABC requests to film inside the dialysis

01:38 centres in Port Hedland and Carnarvon.

01:40 When asked about the possibility of establishing a new dialysis centre here in Karratha, a

01:45 WA government spokesperson said the need for treatment services will continue to be monitored.

01:50 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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