The patients and some nurses are protesting against the closing and asking that Grady postpone the closing.
One of the nurses said she knew 23 of the people who would have nowhere to go.
It seems really sad to me like even for illnesses they can treat, they are so nonchalant about it, something that is literally life or death as dialysis.
eagle
Hi Eagle Eye,
Bill Peckham has a blog about this on his site “Dialysis from the Sharp End of the Needle.” Here’s the original article: http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/grady-says-it-will-138132.html. The hospital is actually offering to fly patients home to their states–or countries. And here’s what Bill says: http://www.billpeckham.com/
Yep, I found his site interesting and will go back often I am sure. However, I am right here listening to this people and I think it’s awful. Are you saying because they are willing to uproot you and send you to another state or country it is okay to close the center?
Some of them are originally from other countries. But just as many are from right here in town. There was a nurse who spoke on camera saying she knew 23 people who had nowhere to go. Even so, I am from another state and would get lousy care if I had to live there again.
From my observation many are nonchalant about this life-threatening condition, from the workers inside the centers to the doctors outside running the show. I placed an order for the very first time recently and was rudely spoken to because I had gone past my order date. The overall treatment of those involved in the care of kidney failure patients is unacceptable. It seems that everyone involved from a-z see it as such a burden.
in the end, they are going to do whatever they want. the patients will be scrambling to survive. I am just making an observation and do not like what I am seeing so far in my 5 months of being on dialysis.
I think the key line is this one, Eagle Eye:
“The problem is that about 60 of the clinic’s 90 patients are undocumented immigrants, who cannot collect government aid such as Medicaid and for whom the hospital cannot find another local medical provider.”
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The problem is, there is no money in the system to care for undocumented aliens. Georgia is not the only state to shut down programs that had been helping them, once the economy went south and times got tougher. In some cases, people going back to their native countries can get dialysis care. But the unfortunate reality is that the U.S. is having a hard time with health care for citizens who pay taxes–and these folks don’t.
As to being treated with dignity and respect–that’s a RIGHT you have as someone on dialysis who is being treated by a clinic that accepts Medicare dollars.
Right. I picked up on that on Bill’s website. I guess disappointment is what I feel more than anything. that patients have to fight for quality healthcare for certain conditions, mainly kidney failure. I don’t know of any other condition other than AIDS where people are treated less than human.
As for the undocumented patients. why not approach them and deal with them separately? why wait until caring for them bankrupts the clinic. it just feels a little bit like everyone suffers because of the ones who are here illegally. although, the faces I saw didn’t leave me with the impression there were that many undocumented patients. but then I suppose they stayed home.
