Bass Coast Health (BCH), in collaboration with Monash Health, offers a comprehensive Haemodialysis service for the South Gippsland and Bass Coast communities.
World Kidney Day on Thursday 14 March is an opportunity to acknowledge the value of the Haemodialysis unit at Wonthaggi Hospital. In 2023, the service provided 3069 life-sustaining treatments.
Dialysis cleans toxins from the blood of patients with end-stage kidney disease. Without this treatment, they would not survive. Patients are typically treated for five hours, three times a week, while their blood is filtered by a machine that performs the function of a kidney.
Patient Neale Blunden of Foster used to receive treatment at Latrobe Regional Hospital at Traralgon.
“Wonthaggi Hospital is a lot closer to home. It’s a good service, and the Nurses are very good and we all have lots of fun. You’ve got to make something like this fun,” he said.
“Receiving dialysis has been life-changing for me. I’ve had kidney disease for 28 years and I knew it may come to this.”
Haemodialysis Ward Nurse Unit Manager Sky Martin said Dialysis patients range in age from their forties to their eighties.
“It’s a privilege to share this journey with our consumers. We get to be a part of people’s lives when they are often at their most vulnerable,” she said.
“We provide dialysis, emotional support and education, and we try to have a laugh along the way.”
The Haemodialysis service at Wonthaggi Hospital operates from Monday to Saturday. To book dialysis treatment at Wonthaggi Hospital, phone 5671 3309. To receive dialysis, patients need to be referred by their Nephrologist and come through a referral pathway via Monash Health.