Watch above: Dialysis patients in Lac La Biche are tired of what they call a band-aid solution. To get treatment, they have to get on a bus that is parked outside the hospital. Quinn Ohler reports.
EDMONTON – Lac La Biche residents who depend on dialysis to stay alive are tired of having to board a bus parked outside the hospital for treatment.
The bus has been an issue in the county for nearly a decade. It was actually intended as a permanent solution, but patients say it’s a band-aid fix that’s run its course.
Brian Macor is among those hoping for change. He’s a patient of the Lac La Biche hospital, but has been told the lift on the bus won’t work for him and space inside is limited. So three times a week, he has to pay a private driver to take him roughly 140 kilometres to and from St. Paul for dialysis.
“I get tired of running back and forth,” he says.
Doctors and nurses have told Macor he should consider moving to St. Paul, but the 62-year Lac La Biche resident can’t bear to leave his family.
Even for those who are able to get on the bus, it can sometimes be a challenge.
A couple weeks ago, the lift broke down, forcing double amputee Lorne Durocher to crawl onto the bus to receive his treatment.
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His wife, Shelley, says the procedure is already hard enough on her husband without having to worry about accessibility. And with winter just around the corner, she worries it will become an even bigger problem.
Minister of Health Stephen Mandel has met with the county and insists they’re working together to find a solution.
“It seems kind of odd that we have a bus where people could have to have dialysis and then it could freeze in the winter time, we’ve been told,” he admits. “So, we’re looking at ways to work with Lac La Biche to see if we could fix that.”
What that fix will be is not yet known, though. Nor is there a timeline in place.
The MLA for the area, Shayne Saskiw, says that people in Lac La Biche have taken matters into their own hands and raised about $100,000 to move the dialysis equipment into the hospital.
Seeing that happen is one of the county’s top priorities. County mayor Omer Magharabi – whose brother receives dialysis three times a week on the bus – vows to keep advocating for it.
“It’s just not acceptable. Not in Canada.”
With files from Quinn Ohler, Global News
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