A Bentley area dialysis patient is continuing to make the trek to Wetaskiwin for treatment, although he has been told he could return to Red Deer.
Paul Norvila was sent to Wetaskiwin a few weeks ago to receive dialysis.
“For the past month we have rearranged our lives around a schedule that has Paul having his treatments on different days at Wetaskiwin than he had been in Red Deer,” said June Norvila. “Paul likes the days Wetaskiwin has given him better and wants to continue with those days. After over 11 years we actually have a real two-day weekend by having no dialysis on a Saturday.”
Norvila said Red Deer Hospital will not offer that same schedule to him and he would have to go back to having dialysis every Saturday afternoon.
“Even though his old chair has somehow been offered back to him, and they say it will remain there for him, we have chosen to keep going to Wetaskiwin for the time being even though the long trips are very tiring, time consuming, and costly.”
However, Norvila said Paul will eventually come back to Red Deer.
“We will be returning to Red Deer as we definitely do not want to keep driving to Wetaskiwin, especially when the weather turns bad.”
Alberta Health Services stated, in a press release April 25, additional dialysis capacity will be added in the short term at Red Deer Regional Hospital; a solution that has been in the works for several weeks. This additional capacity means that three Red Deer patients currently travelling for treatment will now receive dialysis in their community.
AHS is working hard to find a solution that will provide further dialysis capacity in Red Deer, the press release states.
But Norvila said notification of such a solution has not yet been released.
“We did visit with some dialysis fiends at Red Deer dialysis and they say nothing has changed as far as increasing capacity goes and they still haven't heard of any plan yet.”
Norvila added she was told by a staff member that everybody's schedule may change in September.