Hope for dialysis patients

Hope for dialysis patients
Posted By CAROL MULLIGAN, THE SUDBURY STAR
Posted 5 hours ago

Dr. Richard Goluch is trying hard not to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Sudbury Regional Hospital has received $584,000 from the Ministry of Health and Long- Term Care to run a home hemodialysis program for 12 people in northeastern Ontario.

That is good news for the nephrologist.

But the funding falls short of what is required to run the nocturnal or daily home hemodialysis program Goluch and other northerners have been calling for, and that Sudbury MPP Rick Bartolucci promised to

deliver during the 2007 election campaign.

"I'm very happy, but I'm not thrilled," said Goluch. "There's no way we're going to give up on the daily issue. We need to have that choice."

Hemodialysis is a process in which the blood of people who suffer kidney failure is filtered through a machine.

Traditionally, dialysis patients travel to hospital or a satellite location for three weekly sessions of dialysis that last an average four hours each.

This fall, as many as a dozen northerners will begin six to eight weeks of intensive training, and be equipped with $30,000 dialysis machines and other supplies to do it at home.

Home dialysis will eliminate hundreds of hours of travel and wait time annually for patients, said Goluch, a kidney specialist originally from Noranda, Que.

It will also provide greater independence and convenience for patients who qualify.

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