It was a long time coming, but it’ s finally happening: The William J. Cadzow hospital in Lac La Biche will soon be home to a permanent indoor dialysis unit.
It was a long time coming, but it’ s finally happening: The William J. Cadzow hospital in Lac La Biche will soon be home to a permanent indoor dialysis unit.
Health Minister Sarah Hoffman was on hand at the local hospital on Wednesday to announce $3 million in provincial funding for the project, which will see regional dialysis patients get their treatment at a new unit inside the hospital rather than on a modified bus parked outside the building. The new unit will have six dialysis stations compared to the five on the bus, and will be in a larger, more comfortable environment for the patients.
The POST initially broke this story in early February, when internal discussions at Alberta Health Services surrounding the project were still underway.
Minister Hoffman first saw the bus while on a visit to the region last summer. She said seeing the vehicle - which is a full-service mobile treatment centre - first-hand made it clear that change was necessary.
“Being here in the summer gave a signal that this was something I was really interested in,” she said, adding that the bus was less than ideal for dialysis patients. “I don’ t think anyone would argue [in favour] that it was a good long-term solution for the community.”
Community members and local politicians have been pushing to improve dialysis care in the area for more than a decade. The dialysis bus has been in Lac La Biche since 2010, and has been plagued with technical issues like leaks and electrical failures, especially in more recent times.
Lac La Biche County Mayor Omer Moghrabi is thrilled by the announcement, and added that it’ s the culmination of lots of effort by many people over the course of several years.
“It was a joint effort,” he said. “On a team, no one takes credit - you try to win the game and I think we did that today.”
Zicki Eludin, president of the newly-formed Lac La Biche Health Foundation, said the move will be a positive step for the region’ s dialysis patients and improve every aspect of service for them, as well as increase the hospital’ s capacity for treatment.
“It’ s night and day for them,” he said, adding that while the challenges of dialysis treatment will still remain for the patients, having a permanent unit inside the building will improve the experience for them. “It’ s a tough life, it’ s really hard on them, it’ s really hard on their families. This will make it easier.”
David Hanson, Wildrose MLA for Lac La Biche - St. Paul - Two Hills, said shortly after his election last year that getting the dialysis unit moved indoors would be one of his first priorities as representative for the area. It was he who invited Hoffman to see the bus last summer. The opposition member said he was happy the move was finally made official, and added that this project went far beyond politics.
“This isn’ t about me, or the government, this is about doing the right thing,” he said. “I’ m absolutely ecstatic. This is fantastic news for the community and the whole surrounding area.”
While he’ s happy the dialysis unit is moving indoors, he is dismayed it took so long for the province to make it happen, as the community has been asking for the project long before he and the current provincial government were ever elected.
“I think there were a lot of people that were in a position to make a difference over the five or 10 years that sat on their hands and didn’ t do anything. There should be a little bit of shame there,” he said.
The new project is expected to be complete in early 2018, with Alberta Health Services officials hoping for work to begin soon. Hoffman said the bidding process for the project will soon be underway, with planning and design to take shape as soon as possible.
“We’ ll be starting very quickly with requests for qualifications and proposals, and selecting a person to move forward with the project,” she said. “We hope to be in the construction phase at the end of the summer or early fall - we’ ll be moving fast.”
The announcement of the indoor dialysis unit may not spell doom for the bus parked outside. Hoffman said the bus still has resources people could make use of.
“I want to put the wheels on the bus. I think it’ s a responsible way to make sure that we use whatever it is that can be re-salvaged,” she said.
The bus was originally built at a cost of over a million dollars to service several Alberta communities on a rotating schedule. It was eventually parked as a permanent addition to the health services at the Lac La Biche hospital in 2012.
