Rural dialysis service still up in the air

The future of dialysis services in rural parts of the province is still undecided, Health PEI says.

In the spring, the provincial government announced it was shutting down dialysis units in Souris and Alberton and centralizing the service at two new large centres in Charlottetown and Summerside.

However, closure of the units — which are used by people with kidney disease —were postponed after public pressure.

Kinsey Smith, a board member of Health PEI, said there's an increasing load in the use of dialysis services and it might be more viable to keep the two rural units open.

"But the question that comes up with that is can we increase the number of transplants done from the Island?" said Smith.

"And there are various ways in which that, not being able to get live donor transplants done increases the number of people who are piling into the need for dialysis, and if we could reduce the rate of input or the rate of growth, that would be very nice — putting some money into enhancing the ability to do transplant. But again, that's not done here. That's done off the Island." 

Dialysis treatment services will be one of the issues discussed at Health PEI's annual general meeting, Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. in Charlottetown. The meeting will be streamed live on Health PEI's website and will be broadcast in the boardrooms of hospitals in Summerside, Montague and Alberton.