It made the news nationwide when the Northern Territory banned those from adjoining border areas from going onto dialysis in Alice Springs no matter what family and tribal connections to the place they may have. Alice Springs has the largest dialysis unit in the southern Hemisphere.
The catalyst for the publicity and hopefully some action was the case of the famous artist Patrick Tjungurrayi from the Western Australia border community of Kiwirrkurra.
Kiwirrkurra is 200kms west of Kintore and is serviced from Alice Springs. There is no ability to get patients back from Kalgoorlie or Perth to Kiwirrkurra if they are evacuated west instead of east to Alice Springs without transiting through Alice Springs.
Renal patients in the border regions of South and Western Australia had to make the hard decision. Go to Adelaide or Perth far away from family and country or to stay on country and die. But is the wait any less in other capitals? My understanding is there is a wait list of over 40 for access to dialysis in Perth. Would you travel thousands of kilometres from home. To wait. And wait.
The stand by Patrick Tjungurrayi seems to have forced some action. The ABC reports that at the last Council of Australian Governments’ (COAG) meeting an agreement on cross-border dialysis was reached. I assume this means South Australia and Western Australia will pay for access. Despite the statement saying an agreement has been reached nothing has been signed. So there will be further delays until money starts flowing, extra facilities built, dialysis machines and staff ready to go.
A few days ago the Northern Territory Government released an extra $120 million to put into the health system.
$9.5 million for 95 nurses.
$7 million to run Darwin’s new cancer centre
$4 million for more staff at Gove Hospital.
$5 million Expanded dialysis facilities in Katherine and Tennant Creek
I don’t know where the rest is going but I think if they were expanding real services in Alice they would trumpet it as often and as loudly as they could.
The artists of Papunya Tula many years ago painted their hearts and souls out and and raised $1million dollars auctioning their artworks to set up a dialysis machine in Kintore for people to visit home from Alice Springs. The Kiwirrkurra artists are part of this organisation and many donated paintings for the auction.
As well as the chair and space in Kintore the “Purple House” in Alice Springs was purchased and the Western Desert Nganampa Walytja Palyantjaku Tjutaku (or the Western Desert Dialysis Mob) came into being. Kiwirrkurra people play a large role in this. But if the NT government’s decision stood it would mean they would have no access to it and no way to get home to country and family.
Nganampa Walytja Palyantjaku Tjutaku have received an increase in funding from the Federal government as well as $500 000 from Medicines Australia. This will allow them to kit out a dialysis truck to move into various communities and bring people home in the tri-state border (NT/WA/SA) for visits. It sort of makes a mockery of state borders.
I look forward to a signed agreement between South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory so dialysis services can be increased in Alice Springs.
To see the impact of end stage renal disease on remote Indigenous Australians take a look at the Australian Story program on Mandawuy Yunupingu
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Western desert Dialysis Mob
If you are in the Red Centre at the end of October this conference would be well worth going to. I may well be there en-route to a few prior engagements.
Date: 30 – 31 October 2009
Location: Crowne Plaza, Alice Springs, Northern Territory
Category: Indigenous
Overview
This symposium is being organised by the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institution in conjunction with Alice Springs Hospital and the Northern Territory Department of Health and Families. The objective of this two-day symposium is to provide health care practitioners in the region with the opportunity to learn more about the latest treatments and interventions for people with complex diabetes and to debate the challenges of preventing and effectively managing diabetes and cardiovascular disease in Central Australia.
Some of the topics include:
- a review of epidemiology and public health aspects of diabetes,
- consideration of cardiovascular complications of diabetes, and
- a review of current international trends in screening and diagnosis.
The symposium will contain a half day planning workshop to discuss future care and prevention strategies in diabetes and cardiovascular disease care in remote communities.
Keynote speakers at the symposium will include:
- Dr Stephen Brady – Head, Department of Medicine, Director of Physician Training, Alice Springs Hospital
- Dr Alex Brown – Director for Indigenous Research (CIVDR), Baker IDI
- Dr Christine Connors – Director, Preventable Chronic Disease Program, NT Department of Health & Families
- Professor Sandra Eades – Head, Indigenous Maternal and Child Health Research Programme, Baker IDI
- Professor Garry Jennings AM – Director, Baker IDI
- Associate Professor Jonathan Shaw – Associate Director, Health Services, Baker IDI
- Professor Paul Zimmet AO – Director Emeritus, and Director of International Research, Baker IDI
Registrations are complimentary and can be made via our website at www.bakeridi.edu.au or by contacting the symposium co-ordinator on 1300 728 900
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- Aboriginal Housing Plan. after more than 12 months the first house may soon be STARTED to be built http://bit.ly/asZBG
- $50 million in bureaucratic expenses ‘trimmed’ from $700M indigenous housing program. 7% of program. http://bit.ly/2ygrZ3
- Federal court case over Alice Springs town camp takeover resumes. Argue that housing assoc do not represent residents http://bit.ly/Zu5E
- Refugees in their own land – communities wait on hope as housing program stalls http://bit.ly/yldS9
- INDIGENOUS housing in northern Australia is in crisis. Inflated costs, delays in commissioning work on housing. http://bit.ly/tWsxy
- Govt insist indigenous people living in filthy, overcrowded “town camps don’t want new houses even though overcrowded Govt insist indigenous people living in filthy, overcrowded “town camps don’t want new houses even though overcrowded http://bit.ly/cak7F
- West Australian Government makes false claims that native title legislation will ‘block’ it from building new houses http://bit.ly/7nlrQ
The Indigenous News Updates are sourced from news and other articles from around the country that I have posted on Twitter.
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