Pictou County muncipalities request more dialysis seats

When Pictou County resident Lloyd Tattrie was put on dialysis in May 2021, there were no local seats available for him to receive the treatment in Pictou County.

For the initial weeks, he was required to get the treatment in Halifax- more than 150 kilometres away.

Dialysis must be done three times a week and not counting travel time, it is about a fourhour long procedure.

Thankfully, for Tattrie, CHAD Transit was there to help.

For just over two weeks, a driver took him back and forth to Halifax for the dialysis process.

Since then he’s been able to get a spot at the dialysis unit in Antigonish, but still makes use of CHAD for transportation.

“It is a really good service,” Tattie said. “Their staff are very friendly.”

He said making it to the appointments without them would be much more difficult and costly.

While he does pay a fee towards his travel costs each week, some of the cost for dialysis patients is subsidized by CHAD.

In 2020, the province did allot a certain amount of money to CHAD to subsidize the cost of dialysis patients, but that $18,000 was quickly spent with the high demand for dialysis, according to information recently presented at councils in Pictou County.

A letter was sent to all of the mayors and warden asking for them to write a joint letter to the province asking for more dialysis seats in the county.

In Stellarton, where CHAD executive director Danny MacGillivray is mayor, the motion to write a letter supporting more local dialysis seats was quickly passed.

“It’s disgraceful that people have to travel to Halifax and Antigonish from Pictou County,” said Coun. Bryan Knight. “We’re being left out here again.”

According to information provided by MacGillivray that was discussed at the Municipality of Pictou County meeting, CHAD takes four people to Antigonish three times a week and one to Pictou.

The topic has come up before in the Municipality of Pictou County chambers. In the past Coun. Peter Boyles put forward a motion to send a letter to the provincial government and request more seats added at the Aberdeen Hospital.

He said it only makes sense to put seats at the Aberdeen “so people don’t have to be traveling all over the place.”

For Tattrie, if the additional seats were added anywhere in Pictou County, it would save considerable travel time, he said.