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Kidney care is coming closer to home for those living outside of Saskatoon.
The St. Paul’s Hospital Foundation announced this week that it surpassed its $10 million goal for the By Your Side Kidney Care Campaign, raising a total of $10.21 million.
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According to Lecina Hicke, the foundation’s CEO, $7 million will go towards a Kidney Health Education Centre and transition program.
The aim of that program, she explained, is to ease the adjustment period for those who are newly diagnosed with kidney failure. She said the funding is needed, as roughly 10 per cent of Saskatchewan’s population has some form of kidney disease.
Hicke said health-care providers will talk with patients and their families, helping them understand their diagnoses and talking them through any fears or concerns.
Rather than needing to visit St. Paul’s Hospital, “three to four days a week, four hours a day,” hospital foundation CEO Lecina Hicke said with the transition program patients will only have to come every few months. (Marija Robinson/650 CKOM)
Then, Hicke said, patients learn about their treatment options.
“What a lot of people don’t understand, because of the way they enter the health-care system, is that in-centre dialysis is not your only option,” she said.
There’s also peritoneal dialysis or home-based therapy, which Hicke said can lead to a higher quality of life for patients.
What that means for patients from northern and rural communities is that they’ll have the option of staying at home, “avoiding those 100-kilometre-plus trips when they may not be necessary,” Hicke said.
She said many patients have been forced to make difficult decisions in order toa access treatment.
“‘Do I spend my life travelling to that care? Or do I leave my community and my home and move to a different city to make it easier on myself?’ So those are challenges we hope people don’t have to decide between,” Hicke added.
While anyone diagnosed with kidney failure will need to visit St. Paul’s Hospital at some point to see their specialist and other care providers, Hicke said it won’t need to happen as often.
Instead of needing to visit Saskatoon three to four days a week for several hours at a time, Hicke said, patients would only have to come down every few months.
It’s because with the new transition program, kidney patients will have the option to take an intensive eight-week program at St. Paul’s, according to Hicke.
“Then they would be able to facilitate most of their care from their home community,” she said.
Hicke said construction plans for the Kidney Health and Education Centre are currently being developed with the goal of opening in 2027.
