‘Funded to operate three days a week’: Waitlist grows for Charters Towers dialysis

Patients are being turned away for renal dialysis at a North Queensland health facility as the waitlist balloons, despite the chairs sitting empty four days a week.

The THHS confirmed there was a four-person waitlist at the Charters Towers dialysis satellite unit.

Patients are being turned away for renal dialysis at a North Queensland health facility despite the chairs sitting empty four days a week.

The Charters Towers renal dialysis satellite unit was opened in 2022, and is operated by the Townsville Hospital and Health Service (THHS).

THHS CEO Kieran Keyes said the dialysis unit had four chairs, and was staffed by two clinicians per shift.

“The service is funded to operate three days a week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday,” Mr Keyes said.

“And provides dialysis to four local patients each week.”

Bill and Kathryn Henderson at Townsville University Hospital, which they attend three times a week for Mrs Henderson's dialysis.

Due to the staffing arrangement, this means the dialysis facility sits empty and unused on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday.

The THHS confirmed there was currently a four-person long waitlist for a dialysis chair in Charters Towers.

One of those on the waitlist is 75-year-old Kathryn Henderson, who needs dialysis three times a week.

“I started on peritoneal dialysis in 2021 and I had a home machine for four years,” Mrs Henderson said.

“Seven months ago I started getting worse and my doctor said I needed to go to haemodialysis, which I could only get at a hospital.”

Mrs Henderson's arm. During dialysis, her blood is pumped out of her body, through a dialyser or "artificial kidney" and back into her body. It takes five hours for the dialyser to filter her entire blood supply.

With no chairs available in Charters Towers, Mrs Henderson started the gruelling process of travelling into Townsville University Hospital three days a week.

Her 81-year-old husband Bill Henderson is always by her side.

“What gets me is they don’t have the staff working on Tuesdays and Thursdays,” Mr Henderson said of the Charters Towers service.

“If they did, we could go on those days and only have to travel to Townsville on Saturday. That would work much better.”

Both Mrs Henderson and her husband are former nurses who met while working at Charters Towers Hospital.

“We don’t have a bad word to say about the staff, they are beautiful people who 100 per cent look after us,” Mr Henderson said.

“But we’re speaking about this issue not just for ourselves, but for the three other people on that waitlist because it’s not getting better. The need for dialysis is only getting worse.”

The renal dialysis clinic in Alice Springs. Nurse Dean Oldfield has worked at the clinic for 15 years. He says the last few years have been an "eye opener". "We do get quite a few youngsters," he said. Picture: Liam Mendes

During the February and March floods Charters Towers was cut off from Townsville on multiple occasions.

When that happened, the Charters Towers dialysis unit increased its hours to take in Mrs Henderson and other Charters Towers residents who couldn’t get to Townsville for their dialysis appointments.

“We did five sessions in Charters Towers when the Macrossan Bridge was closed. The staff did overtime to fit us in and that was wonderful,” Mrs Henderson said.

“Now, whenever it rains while we’re in Townsville, you do get nervous about getting stuck on the wrong side of the bridge.”

Photos taken from the Heliway helicopter of the Burdekin River flooding of the Flinders Hwy at the Macrossan Bridge. Feb 3, 2pm.

The Hendersons catch the Trans North bus to Townsville at 8am, arrive at the hospital 10am, finish the dialysis at 2pm, hop back on the bus at 4pm, and arrive home by 5.30pm.

Mrs Henderson said it was becoming hard to keep up with the schedule.

“It is taking its toll on us, we are worn out,” she said.

“We don’t want to move to Townsville. Bill was born out here and we’ve lived very good lives in Charters Towers.”

When asked why the Charters Towers dialysis unit wasn’t staffed on Tuesdays and Thursdays, THHS CEO Kieran Keyes said the service was only funded to operate three days a week.

“Like many rural and remote health services, recruiting and retaining specialist staff remains a challenge, and we often rely on agency staff to help maintain service continuity,” Mr Keyes said

“The health service is reviewing options to dialyse more patients in Charters Towers.”

Member for Traeger Robbie Katter has been following the Henderson’s situation and said Charters Towers patients should not have to endure the exhausting travel to Townsville when the infrastructure to treat them existed in town.

2020: Robbie Katter with Charters Towers resident and dialysis patient Patricia Kennedy, in front of Townsville University Hospital before the Charters Towers chairs were installed. PICTURE: MATT TAYLOR.

“The service currently operates only three days a week – Monday, Wednesday, and Friday with only one shift on those days – despite a clear need for two shifts a day, five days a week,” Mr Katter said.
“The government must stop dragging its feet and commit to delivering more staff and adequate funding to ensure the Charters Towers dialysis service operates to its full potential.”
The four Charters Towers dialysis chairs were built alongside four chairs in Ingham – all eight were funded by $4 million from the Queensland Government’s Rural and Regional Renal Program.

Originally published as ‘Funded to operate three days a week’: Waitlist grows for Charters Towers dialysis