Monday 1 March, 2010

 Media Release - Uniting church calls for action on dialysis (323.37 kB)

The Uniting Church SA is calling on the government to provide better access to dialysis for people living with chronic health issues in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands.

A resolution passed at this weekend’s meeting of the SA Synod of the Uniting Church calls on the State and Federal Governments to:

• Remove the barriers that currently prevent critically-ill people from South Australia’s APY Lands from accessing renal dialysis in Alice Springs.
• Investigate the pros and cons – and comparative costs – of providing renal dialysis in a range of settings, including in remote Aboriginal communities like the APY lands.

In early 2009, the Northern Territory Government decided that it would no longer let people from the APY Lands relocate to Alice Springs for renal dialysis.

This decision has forced a number of South Australian Anangu patients to leave their homelands.

“Driving from the APY lands to Adelaide is like driving from Adelaide to Sydney for treatment. Obviously, you can’t do that every three days. Relocation is the only option. To uproot people from their families and separate them from their homelands is cruel,” says Rev Rod Dyson, Moderator of the Uniting Church.

The Uniting Church believes the pressure on the health system will continue to grow.

Between 2003 and 2007, the number of Indigenous Australians on dialysis climbed from 772 to 1066.

Last December, the Western Australian Government agreed to negotiate a new arrangement with the NT Government so that WA renal patients living east of Warburton could, once again, access dialysis services in the Northern Territory.

So far the South Australian Government has been unable or unwilling to negotiate a new cross-border arrangement with the Northern Territory Government.

Close to 300 Synod members unanimously voted in support of the Uniting Church’s call on the government for a more humane approach.

Further background information is available on the Uniting Care Wesley Adelaide’s Paper Tracker website:
<http://www.papertracker.com.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=214&Itemid=57>

Rev Rod Dyson, Moderator of the Uniting Church, and Rev Peter MacDonald, Minister, UnitingCare Wesley Adelaide, are available for comment.

Rev McDonald co-presented the proposal to the Synod and visited the APY lands last month to hear people’s concerns.

For more information contact:

Shannon Short
Communications and Public Relations manager

(08) 8236 4249