COVER STORY
Top Priority Need to prioritize transportation for dialysis patients
by Heidi Westfield
q Sault Ste. Marie’s Accessibility Advisory Committee (AAC) gather at a recent meeting.
8 / Kidney Living / Spring 2020
W
hen Newfoundland was hit with a record-breaking blizzard early this year, Shirley Pulkkinen’s first thought was: “What is happening to the dialysis patients out there? How are they going to get to their treatments?” During that emergency, officials on the East Coast made access to hospitals for hemodialysis patients a top priority as soon as it was safe to do so. Shirley finds that kind of response encouraging. As a longtime renal social worker, she has seen the difficulties kidney patients can face getting to their dialysis treatments. “For some people their health is so fragile that missing one dialysis session may kill them,” she says. “This is a life-and-death situation. We need to have the infrastructure to ensure that dialysis is not overlooked and is part of emergency plans for every community.” Shirley is among a growing number of advocates across Ontario bringing attention to the transportation barriers facing dialysis patients. She is a member of a group of volunteers who comprise the Accessibility Advocacy Committee (AAC) for the city of Sault Ste. Marie. They are working to highlight some of the limitations of local transit options and call for more affordable, accessible services. She would like to see:
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