Cost-cutting behind service cutback: dialysis patientPosted 8 hours 12 minutes ago
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
A home dialysis patient says she and about 30 other Northern Rivers patients have been told there is no nursing support for them over the Christmas period.
Melissa Darnley, from Pottsville, says learning to self-administer the treatment is complex, and requires a lengthy training period.
She says a nurse is usually on-call for emergencies, but patients have been told by the North Coast Area Health Service that this year that will not be the case.
Ms Darnley says it is the first time support has been withdrawn, and any complications while using the dialysis machine would be life-threatening.
"I'm probably in a better situation than some, because I know that some have just finished their training, and they would be very nervous about doing it at home," she said.
"It's a life-support system, obviously, and it makes me feel I don't want to dialyse for the couple of days [because] there's no nurses there."
Ms Darnley says she thinks cost-cutting is behind the decision.
"It's definitely not the nurses' fault," she said.
"I'm sure that the powers that be, the hospital administrators perhaps, have decided that that's money that they can't afford to pay over the holiday period."
The health service's Wayne Jones says the letter was sent out to patients warning that there could be a problem with on-call nurses, but that is no longer the case.
"The resources have been identified to ensure that they have the on-call support for the 365 days, including Christmas Day," he said.
"They were informed there was a worst-case scenario if resources weren't identified, just to make them aware, so they could organise their dialysis dates around those opportunities.
"But as I said since then, we've managed to source the resources so the on-call expertise will be available to them."
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/12/26/2127377.htm
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