Long wait for dialysis patient

Emma Swain

January 13, 2006

PATIENCE: Roz Carroll has to wait hours and hours to be transported to and from hospital for her life-saving kidney dialysis treatment. Picture by Cathy Bowen

Three times a week, Roz Carroll sits in the corridors of the John Hunter Hospital waiting to come home. Perched on a wheelchair, with no legs, the kidney dialysis patient is lucky to make it home by 5pm . . .other times it's closer to 11pm. But Mrs Carroll's grief does not lie with the ambulance officers who transport her home to Metford every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

And she isn't alone.

Roz Carroll loves to watch The Bold and the Beautiful.

The American television soap is one of the 72-year-old's greatest pleasures.

But Mrs Carroll, who has had both of her legs amputated, often misses her favourite show . . . all because she's ill and is forced to wait many hours before she makes it home to Metford.

For the past two years Mrs Carroll has been on dialysis at the John Hunter Hospital, hooked up to a machine three times a week for up to five hours a day.

Mrs Carroll's gruelling day usually begins at 7am when an ambulance picks her up to take her to the Newcastle hospital. Often she doesn't make it home again until 5pm, 6pm or even 10.45pm.

"I usually come off the machine between 1pm and 2pm but then I have to wait for an ambulance to take me home and that can be anytime between 5pm and 10.45pm," Mrs Carroll said.

"I just sit in the hallway until my boys (the ambulance officers) come and get me.

"I go home last because I live in Maitland, but I have no choice, I just have to wait."

Mrs Carroll had the first of her legs removed on Christmas Day 2002. Her other leg was amputated in February 2003 and she has been on dialysis since.

"I lost both of my legs due to complications associated with diabetes and kidney problems," Mrs Carroll said.

"And I can't use the Maitland dialysis unit because I am in a wheelchair but I'm sure if I could use the machines there then I would go home a lot earlier than I do now."

But Mrs Carroll, and many like her, do not blame the ambulance service but rather the lack of transport facilities available to dialysis patients.

"There just has to be some sort of transport service set up for dialysis patients," she said.

"We all realise that the ambulance service is not a taxi service and we understand that we have to wait but it just isn't right. Something just has to be done."

The Mercury last month reported that a Beresfield ambulance transported a dialysis patient from Newcastle to Taree, sparking a row between the Health Service Union and Hunter ambulance management.

The union claims that because of bad planning the sick woman arrived home about midnight.

Bolwarra kidney recipient Alison Brown said unfortunately these situations were more common than rare.

"This problem is only set to worsen with more and more Hunter people being diagnosed with diabetes and renal failure," Mrs Brown said.

"Things are bad at Maitland but they are worse at the John Hunter and it's only going to become a lot worse, it's scary the number of people who will eventually end up on dialysis machines."

Elizabeth Roberts of Kurri Kurri said she had been forced to wait up to eight hours to be brought home after being on a dialysis machine at Maitland Hospital.

"Most of the time I wait between three and four hours," Ms Roberts said.

"The ambulance is not a taxi service, and we all know that and we certainly don't blame the ambos, but we definitely need some form of transport to get us home at a reasonable hour after being on dialysis for so long."

According to Kidney Health Australia there has been a 6 per cent annual increase in the number of people on dialysis.

The organisation said falling organ donations had placed Australia's transplant system on the critical list.

"Australia's organ donation rate continues to flounder with new figures released showing a 7 per cent fall in the number of organ donors in 2005 compared to 2004," Kidney Health Australia's chief executive Anne Wilson said.

"This is at a time when we are having a six per cent annual increase in the numbers of people on dialysis. This fall in organ donation is a heavy hit on all those who are waiting for a transplantation - their average wait will be four years."

NSW has reported a 14 per cent fall in donors. One person dies every week waiting for their kidney transplant, Ms Wilson said.

Ms Wilson said initiatives taken last year by the Federal Government to improve the function of the Australian Donor Register had resulted in only 4.5 per cent of Australians recording their intention to be a donor.

Copyright © 2006 Maitland Mercury.

This article posted February 12, 2006.