Dialysis patients complain about poor treatmentMonday, October 5 2009
PATIENTS AT the dialysis unit of the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex are disgusted with the sporadic problems which affect their course of treatment and are calling on Health Minister Jerry Narace to intervene.
Last Friday, service had to be curtailed because of a mechanical problem which caused the machines to be shut down. This resulted in some patients rescheduling and others having less time on the machines.
According to spokesperson for the patients, Inniss Toussaint, there was a problem with the distilled water supplied to the machines during the second shift of dialysis after 12 noon. Engineers were called in to rectify the problem which took a few hours. When the machines were up and running he said staff were “picking and choosing patients and the dialysis nurses say they are not working beyond 8 pm. They are cutting down our time.”
Toussaint said some patients require up to four hours of dialysis three times weekly but because nurses complain they are getting home too late with the crime situation, as well as the North Central Regional Health Authority “not paying overtime”, patients’ dialysis sessions are reduced by half an hour to an hour. He said this can impact on the health of dialysis patients and Toussaint said patients in a bad condition will have to be warded. Patients arrive as early as 6 am to queue up for treatment.
“When nurses come to work late they are cutting the time patients have on the machine, and they are working shift. These are sessions for our life. There are nurses who come to work put the patient on the machine then go on the telephone talking talking.”
Toussaint said: “If we don’t care about ourselves we are dead. This is poor administration.”
He was sure the problems with service has hastened the demise of some dialysis patients.
http://www.newsday.co.tt/news/0,108603.html
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