FEBRUARY 13, 2000

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68 Pages

Patients push
for N. Sh
dialysis unit

Heaith region wants 15-station facility

Michael Becker

News Editor
mbecker@nsnews.com

AS many as 100 North Shore residents suffering
kidney failure nvust travel to hospitals and clinics
in Vancouver for dialysis treatment.

Bob Smith, 76, of North Vancouver, is one of them.

He drives to St. Paul’s Hospital three times a week for four-hour dialysis
treatments. Impurities are removed from his blood. He has had to undergo
dialysis for two years now. His kidney failure was caused by an overdose of
calcium.

When working, kidneys excrete urine, which contains the end products
of metabolism, and help regulate the water, electrolyte and acid base con-
tent of blood.

Smith says a dialysis clinic is sorely needed on the North Shore.

He is still well enough to drive to his treatment sessions, but he said the
majority of his fellow patients are too ill to drive and depend on
handyDART service or other means of transportation.

“Ifyou went up there and looked in on the sixth floor you'd think there
had been a disaster, These people are very. very sick. I'm an exception to the
rule,” he said.

St. Paul’s spokesman Gavin Wilson said the hospital has 37 dialysis beds.
The unit is open seven days a week and operates with three shifts a day,
Monday to Friday and two shifts on the weekend. The hospital facility is one
of 22 renal units across the province.

Without a North Shore clinic, Smith is particularly worried about the fate
of dialysis patients should a disaster such as an earthquake occur.

“We don’t have time to spare. When my dialysis ime comes, [ve got to
be there. WT go more than three days (without) I could be in the hospital
and near death.”

He has produced an emergency preparedness booklet for dialysis
patients: “1 see these dialysis patients and I know what's going to happen to
them if they can’t get access to treatment.”

Smith paid for and distributed the information booklets himself. He
spent about $600 on the project,

Meanwhile, North Shore Health Region spokesman Clay Adams said
that a request is in to the province to establish a dialysis service on the North
Shore. He said the health region is expecting an answer from the provincial
health ministry sometime in May or June.

“The initial discussion has been for a 25-seation dialysis unit on the
North Shore. The ballpark capital costs are as much as $900,000."

Adams said that should a clinic be opened on the North Shore the cost
would be covered by the health ministry through the provincial renal: pro-
gram.

Smith, who networks with other dialysis patients through his computer
at home said the machine was “smoking” after patients heard about Lions

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DIALYSIS patient Bob Smith wants a Nortn Shore treatment facility for people with kidney failure.
The North Vancouver man must currently travel to St. Paul's Hospital three times a week.

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