Commute for treatment taxing for many

Dialysis chairs look like they’re the most comfortable seats in the world, says Stellarton resident Joe Hunter. But there is a difference between looking at one and sitting in it.

Hunter spends four to five hours in one, three times a week.

“After four hours, no chair is comfortable,” he says.

Hunter took his first seat in one of these chairs a year ago as he began the necessary treatment because his kidneys were no longer working as they were supposed to.

For the first three months of his dialysis, he had to have the time-consuming procedure done in Halifax. He spent those months living out of a suitcase in a hotel.

Since returning home, he’s been having the treatment done in Antigonish. It’s about 45 minutes each way, and when he’s done, he doesn’t have the energy to drive. Thankfully he’s been able to access transportation through CHAD Transit.

But still too much of his life is spent driving in a van and sitting in a dialysis chair and he wishes that there were more seats available closer to home. There are some dialysis seats in Pictou but not enough to meet the demand. Others are forced to travel to Antigonish, Springhill or even Halifax three times a week.

CHAD Transit executive director Danny Macgillivray, who is also mayor of Stellarton, is happy the non-profit is able to help those in need of dialysis get to their appointments, but says it can be costly because not only do they have to pay for the fuel and maintenance to get to the destinations but also for the time of the drivers during the four to five hours waiting for the dialysis to be completed.

While they’ve always had some people who needed transportation for dialysis, Macgillivray said for some reason the demand exploded in June 2021.

“We don’t know why. We just started getting a bunch of calls,” he said.

They currently are transporting four people three times a week to Pictou and six people three times a week to Antigonish.

Macgillivray said the cost per person to go to Pictou weekly is about $55, but the cost is around $660/week to go to Antigonish because of the extra costs associated with the driver waiting, extra fuel and other expenses.

“These clients obviously can’t handle that kind of an expenditure, so it’s subsidized,” Macgillivray said.

The province has a fare assistance program and gave CHAD $18,686 for the fiscal year from April 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022.

“We burned through that by the middle of August because the demand started in June,” Macgillivray said.

The organization aims to never reject anyone for financial reasons, so have a fund of their own to help subsidize those who can’t afford the full fare. Macgillivray said they had $20,000 budgeted for that. But now that money is also spent and they are over budget on fuel, repair and maintenance and wages because of the trips.

The Aberdeen Health Foundation has also donated $20,000 to help, but Macgillivray worries about the future if the lack of sufficient dialysis seats in Pictou County isn’t addressed.

“We’re lucky through years of good financial management that we have a little bit of a bank balance to draw on. But it can’t go on forever like this,” he said.

While he would like to see the province contribute more to cover the costs of transporting patients to dialysis, Macgillivray believes to truly solve the problem more seats are needed.

Pictou Centre MLA Pat Dunn said he recently met with his fellow Pictou County MLAS, including Premier Tim Houston to discuss health issues and the lack of enough dialysis seats was brought up.

Dunn said according to current guidelines, new dialysis seats must be placed in a hospital with an ER and he would like to see some placed at the Aberdeen Hospital. The obstacles to accomplishing that are the cost of the seats, finding space for them and also ensuring that there is staff to operate them.

While it is a top priority, Dunn said it’s hard to say for sure when a solution may come.

“There are so many moving parts within Nova Scotia Health, it’s hard to predict,” he said. “It can’t come soon enough for me.”

In the meantime, Hunter, and others like him, will continue their travel and wait for the day treatment doesn’t require a commute.