General News
26 June, 2024
Patient concerned he’ll have to leave town if condition worsens
Ivan Schneekloth worries he might have to move to the coast.
A Normanton-based kidney dialysis patient wants local nurses to be trained to provide haemodialysis treatment as part of the new hospital planning and construction.
Ivan Schneekloth, who undergoes home-based peritoneal self-dialysis, said he has watched other community members transition from peritoneal dialysis at home to being forced to relocate for haemodialysis services.
While welcoming the announcement that dialysis chairs would be included in the new hospital construction, he said local medical professionals should be trained to provide the haemodialysis services that would allow residents to remain in the community.
“If they are going to build a new hospital with new dialysis chairs, why can’t they just make them fit for haemodialysis?” Mr Schneekloth said.
“Why can’t the local nurses be trained to do haemodialysis?
“We need to be finding out what it would take to train a nurse to
become a dialysis nurse.
“I can do the self-dialysis at home – if you do the self-dialysis at the hospital, it means you have to go back there four times a day or else wait around there all day, every day – so I prefer to do it at home.
“But upgraded chairs would make a huge difference for a haemodialysis patients – they would only have to go to the hospital three times a week. They wouldn’t have to leave town.”
The lifelong Normanton resident said while he was unsure whether his illness would eventually force him onto haemodialysis, he was adamant he did not want to be compelled to leave the community due to a lack of medical services in his hometown.
“It only takes three infections and you can’t do self-dialysis anymore – you have to move onto haemodialysis, which means you have to relocate,” he said.
“At the moment, people have to leave town completely and live in cities where they don’t know many people, just to get their medical needs met.
“If we had haemodialysis chairs in Normanton, they could stay here. There have been people moving away from Normanton for many years because of the need for dialysis and the health services have not done enough to stop it.”