PHOTO: Nurse Unit Manager Laura Dent with the dialysis equipment which is now back in use at Coonamble hospital.
Since Monday 9 December, dialysis-trained staff are again on hand at the Coonamble hospital.
“I’m excited to confirm we have successfully recruited and trained the staff required to safely reinstate dialysis services in full at Coonamble Health Service,” Coonamble Health Service Manager Libby Burnheim said.
“This ensures dialysis services are available locally for any patient in our community who requires this important care, at the same level provided before the temporary suspension of services.
“Our team has contacted the few residents who have safely been receiving dialysis at another facility, and they will once again be able to receive care locally.”
For the patients who have had to travel to other towns, it is a relief to have the service back.
“I’m very thankful and pleased to have our life back again,” Mary Hunt, wife of dialysis patient Ken ‘Skell’ Hunt said.
The pair had to do 36 trips to Dubbo for dialysis after Ken had one of his kidneys removed in April.
“You had to get up at 4:30am, leave by 5:30am and we didn’t get home until 3:30pm. You had one day to get over it and then you have to go again,” Mary said.
The couple’s children did the best they could to help take Ken to his appointments but work commitments made it difficult to be there often.
Ken together with Lyal Kennedy who had been travelling to Walgett regularly for his dialysis were the first patients to receive dialysis in Coonamble.
“It’s cheaper and better to come home to your own bed,” Mary said.
The service stopped in Coonamble in January after multiple staff resigned leaving the Coonamble MPS without any trained dialysis staff.
The equipment remained at the hospital while the Western NSW Local Health District (WNSWLHD) worked to fill the staff gaps.
Local resident Jenise Thomas has been advocating for the reinstatement of the dialysis service, contacting local politicians and health services.
“It’s really good to have it back. It’ll help a lot of people around here, not only in Coonamble but in other places like Gilgandra,” Ms Thomas said.
“We apologise for any inconvenience this has caused patients or their families, and thank them and the entire community for their patience and understanding,” Ms Burnheim said.