[Greens-Media] Greens Welcome APY Lands Mobile Dialysis Service But Call for Early Intervention and Food Security

[Franks, Office]

The Greens' Aboriginal and Health Spokesperson Tammy Franks today welcomed the announcement of the mobile dialysis service to be provided to the APY Lands following the success of a twelve month trial.



'This will enable families to stay connected and in community, the benefits for not only the person now able to access life-saving medical care, but also to stay connected with country and kin are enormous,' Ms Franks said.



'The purchase of this mobile dialysis bus, funded by more than $500,000 from the Federal Government is a long overdue, but much welcomed initiative. It follows calls from indigenous groups dating back to 2006* and  questions raised in 2009 in the federal parliament by the Greens' Senator Rachel Siewert and in state parliament in 2010 by Greens' MLC Mark Parnell regarding ongoing issues around kidney health in remote indigenous areas.



'We know that indigenous people in the APY lands have disproportionate levels of kidney disease patients requiring dialysis. Previously these patients would have to have left their communities and moved to Port Augusta, Alice Springs or Adelaide, potentially many hundreds of kilometres away from family and community.



"The loss of the often more senior members of local communities obviously impacted on both the communities as well as on the patients themselves.



'Prevention is still the best cure however, so this Government must also guarantee food security and good health from infancy onwards, to ensure costly interventions such as dialysis do not become necessary in the first place,' Ms Franks concluded.

              * These requests became more urgent in early 2009 when the Northern Territory Government decided it would
               no longer let people from the APY Lands relocate to Alice Springs for renal dialysis. Reference: http://bit.ly/R0ZYAj

For further comment contact Jamnes Danenberg on 0457 549 938