Winter brings some cold temperatures and bad snowstorms, and for the Alberta Health Services dialysis bus that comes to Lac La Biche, winter has been too much for it to handle.
Local dialysis patients were forced to go to St. Paul to receive treatment on December 31 when a part of the water line going from the hospital to the bus broke due to the cold weather.
The water line took more than a week to be fixed, with three patients deciding to go to St. Paul for treatment and one patient opting to go to Edmonton while the bus was being fixed.
Local dialysis patient and one of the people responsible for dialysis treatment recently becoming available to Lac La Biche area patients, Tom Maccagno, was one of the people who was forced to head to St. Paul, saying that patients shouldn’t have to travel.
“They realize they can’t travel in bad weather conditions but yet we are expected to,” said Maccagno, adding that his vehicle slid into the ditch on the way to one of his dialysis treatments in St. Paul.
And winter’s poor driving conditions don’t just affect the patients.
A bad snowstorm also stopped the bus from travelling to LLB in December from Whitecourt.
AHS staff say they have already given a letter to patients in LLB and Whitecourt, cautioning that the bus may not be able to travel during bad weather situations.
“We do have a contingency plan in place that if patients cannot get service from the mobile bus in inclement weather, patients will be accommodated,” said Deb Guerette, Director of Communications for AHS North Zone, adding that the plan is to find a spot for patients at a nearby hospital when the bus can’t make it.
Some dialysis patients think that if a secondary dialysis unit were in William J. Cadzow hospital, these incidents wouldn’t be happening and patients wouldn’t have to travel more than an hour away to get dialysis when the bus is not available.
“Our worst fears are manifesting themselves. [Alberta Health Services] are playing a very cruel game of Russian Roulette,” said Maccagno.
AHS officials say that having the dialysis unit in the local hospital is not a possibility because of space constraints.
With repairs scheduled to have been completed, the bus will reopen its doors to patients yesterday.
The bus is in Lac La Biche on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and travels to Whitecourt on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
