West Clare Transplant Recipient Highlights “Exhausting” Logistical Challenge Facing Dialysis Patients.
A West Clare transplant recipient who’s forced to travel to Galway for dialysis has highlighted the “exhausting” logistical challenge facing Clare patients.
It follows a motion put forward at this month’s meeting of Clare County Council calling on the HSE and the Department of Health to provide a dialysis machine at Ennis General Hospital.
Clare activists and recipients of dialysis are once again shining a light on the difficulties of travelling outside the county to seek dialysis.
At present, there are no dialysis services in the county, meaning patients must travel to Limerick where the service is available at UHL and at a satellite centre on the Dock Road, or to University Hospital Galway.
Aine Mae Crowley, who had a kidney and pancreas transplant in 2017, receives dialysis three days a week at University Hospital Galway which forces her to make a lengthy commute from her home in Miltown Malbay.
Although grateful for the transport provided by local taxi services, Aine Mae says the journey is a logistical challenge and can leave patients “exhausted”.
Junior Health Minister Anne Rabbitte told the Seanad in March of this year that a tender specification document for a dialysis unit in Ennis is being finalised by the UL Hospitals Group, but no update has been given on this.
Peggy Eustace, who is a long-time member of the Clare branch of the Irish Kidney Association, says patients having to undergo an arduous commute is “most unfair”.
The motion to provide a dialysis machine at Ennis General Hospital was put forward by the newly-elected Mayor of Ennis Pat Daly at the monthly council meeting this week and received majority backing.
Councillor Daly of Fianna Fáil believes the introduction of dialysis services in the county town would eliminate what he has described as an “inconvenience” for patients and alleviate financial strain on both patients and the HSE.
You can listen to the full interview below.
