Wildrose MLA Shayne Saskiw has questioned Health Minister Stephen Mandel about Lac La Biche's dialysis bus.
The dialysis bus has been parked, but the concerns surrounding it have taken the express route to Edmonton.
Provincial politician Shayne Saskiw asked Alberta’ s Minister of Health Stephen Mandel last Thursday during Question Period why the Lac La Biche community is still having to make do with a dialysis bus when it’ s been asking for an indoor unit in the local hospital for years.
“Why aren’ t the dialysis units being permanently moved from the bus into the hospital?” asked Saskiw, who represents the Lac La Biche-St. Paul-Two Hills constituency in the Legislature.
Mandel replied that he’ s been made aware of the problems with the dialysis bus, which became a permanent fixture at the William J. Cadzow Healthcare Centre in 2012.
“I’ ve had an opportunity to meet with the community of Lac La Biche and we’ re looking into that as we speak right now,” Mandel said.
Lac La Biche County Council invited Mandel to tour the dialysis bus after images circulated on Facebook of a leg amputee using his stumps to climb aboard when the bus’ wheelchair ramp wasn’ t working.
Several dialysis patients and their family members have contacted the POST in recent weeks, saying that the bus limits access to dialysis treatment in the community. There have been times, they say, when they’ ve had to travel to other communities to receive treatment.
Access to treatment is a regional concern, according to Saskiw. In the Legislature last week, Saskiw said that establishing an indoor dialysis unit in Lac La Biche’ s hospital would free the bus to be used elsewhere.
“We need to find ways in which as many people as possible can have access to dialysis and the honourable member has given a good suggestion,” Mandel answered. “We’ ll see what happens.”
Speaking with the POST on Friday, Saskiw said that the ball is now in Mandel’ s court.
“Minister Mandel acknowledged the logic in my arguments,” he said. “At this point, the question is whether or not he decides to do anything about it.”
The dialysis bus was first introduced in 2010, after a community group successfully lobbied for dialysis services in the municipality. For two years, the bus circulated through three communities before it was permanently parked in Lac La Biche.
Alberta Health Services officials have said that the bus meets the community’ s needs and concerns will be taken into consideration when plans for the future are made.
Mayor Omer Moghrabi says that an indoor dialysis unit in the hospital is what he and other municipal politicians would like to see happen.
“It should be inside the hospital,” he said. “We’ ll keep lobbying for that.”
