Health and Community Services
November 16, 2017

Minister Haggie Announces Investments in Home Dialysis Program and New Kidney Care Centre

Twenty new home hemodialysis machines will be purchased over the next two years to provide opportunities for patients to participate in home-based dialysis treatment. Funding of $600,000 will be provided for the purchase of the machines.

Evidence shows that many people receiving in-centre services would be eligible and benefit from treatment at home. The travel required to access dialysis multiple times a week can be stressful, particularly during winter. A home-based treatment schedule will reduce stress and increase flexibility, allowing people to receive treatment in the comfort of their own home.

Health care professionals will provide education and training to patients on how to use the portable home dialysis unit. These professionals will act as a point of contact for patients in the event of follow-up. They will also arrange the delivery of supplies directly to a patient’s home at no additional cost to them.

Government also recognizes the need to modernize outpatient dialysis services currently provided at the Waterford Hospital. Eastern Health will relocate these services to Mount Pearl Square by the spring of 2018. Renovations are ongoing. As part of this work, the Eastern Health location at Mount Pearl Square has now been renamed the Kidney Care Centre. It will be the education and training hub for kidney patients.

For those receiving dialysis at the Waterford Hospital and who are not eligible for home-based treatment, they will receive treatment at the new centre when it opens. This is part of the initial work to relocate services from the Waterford Hospital.

In The Way Forward, the province committed to increase the number of patients using home dialysis from nine per cent in 2016 to 15 per cent by 2018. The province is on target to meet this commitment with over 10 per cent of patients currently using home dialysis.

Quotes
“Home-based dialysis is one way we can help provide quality care, while easing a person’s stress and need to travel for appointments. When people are able to receive care in their own home, they feel less isolated, and have the flexibility to treat themselves as their time permits.”
Honourable John Haggie
Minister of Health and Community Services

“Home dialysis allows patients with kidney failure the opportunity to receive life-saving and life-preserving treatment in their own homes, on their own schedules. The Kidney Foundation welcomes the addition of new home hemodialysis machines for patients in Newfoundland and Labrador. We also look forward to the establishment of the Kidney Care Centre, and the education and training it will provide.”
Trina Ralph
Executive Director
Kidney Foundation of Canada, Atlantic Branch

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Media contacts
Emily Timmins
Health and Community Services
709-729-6986, 693-1292
EmilyTimmins@gov.nl.ca

Trina Ralph
Kidney Foundation of Canada, Atlantic Branch
709-753-8999, 1-800-563-0626

2017 11 16                              3:35 p.m.