Alberta Health Services "makes dialysis an (Un)reality" for Brooks

It was the Brooks and District Health Foundation’s rallying cry for a little over the last two years: 'make dialysis a reality in Brooks."

With an agreement made that would have the community and foundation raise $1.5 million, the Alberta government would contribute the remaining approximate $2.5 million in funds as part of the Alberta Services budget in 2020 to purchase a dialysis unit for the Brooks Health Centre.

Last week, Diane Declercq, chair of the foundation announced to the public the government had backed out of the agreement. Declercq explained the reason is AHS didn't want to spend money on a hospital dialysis unit which currently there are no patients.

The minds of those who donated to the Brooks renal dialysis efforts must be one of anger, disappointment and perhaps bewilderment.

When this fundraiser was launched, there was a strong push for acquiring a dialysis unit.

With kidney failure with such issues brought on by factors such as diabetes, it is a reoccurring issue and with that the number of patients fluctuates, AHS hierarchy felt there was not enough justification to buy the life-saving machine.

Declercq is left with the unasked for and unenviable job of trying to explain to those who have worked so hard to raise the funds what is going to happen to the donation. The community of Brooks and the county all donated their time and hard-earned dollars for this venture.

Everything from small scale barbecues, kids donating allowances to this past June’s big ticket inaugural Hooked on Dialysis Denim and Boots Hoedown, everyone worked diligently together for this to happen.

And now, poof! Someone looks at a spreadsheet from an urban office in a city a million people numbers far outweigh the 17,000 people in Brooks and the other 7,500 in the County of Newell.

There are some serious questions that will arise amongst the public.

Won't a dialysis unit be needed down the road as some patients who don't know now, and may need it in the future? If there is no need it for it, who made the decision with the Brooks Health Foundation to chip in $2.5 million in a budget in 2020. If they had that kind of foresight for a target of 2020, why pull the plug now?

Sure, the money stays in Brooks, but does that mean the government looks at less funding for the AHS South Zone in the future? There will be a memorandum of understanding of what to do with the money raised, but it will surely anger some. After all, when they were raising the money, everyone knew what it was going towards – now, it is anyone’s guess and that person who kicked $1,000 because his aunt had to drive for years to Medicine Hat to get treatment, now still doesn't contribute to a legacy of getting a machine closer to home. Deflating, if not anger-inducing.

And what does this do for future fundraisers in Brooks? One would hope that this doesn't hurt community spirit, but with money being tight everywhere and the local economy hurt by the low petroleum prices, one wonders if this makes donors slightly cynical or mistrusting.

The problem the local committee has to decide is what to do with the money raised and how do placate those who have worked so hard to fundraise for a dialysis machine.

What a soul sucking blow to the people who worked together and for some, worked very passionately to raise money for this, either because they know someone who has to drive to Calgary and Medicine Hat two or three times a week to get the lifesaving treatment done.

It is of little solace for many that the nearly million dollars stays in Brooks. Those who donated because they wanted to contribute to the community can probably live with the fact that the money will go to something worthwhile like local mental health programs or maybe a long term care project with a growing seniors' population. But right now, these are just ideas, not a real dialysis machine.

It is with certainty that some bureaucrat, government official in Edmonton or Calgary has heard the well-worn and often repeated complaint from the southeast corner of Alberta that it is the “forgotten part of the province.” This headscratching pulling of the plug on this dialysis machine venture doesn’t help with the perception.

(Ryan Dahlman is the managing editor of Prairie Post East)