Some renal patients denied dialysis appointments due to staff shortages

Renal dialysis patients say they've been turned away from life-saving treatment services, as the Northern Territory struggles with health staff shortages.

NT Health has confirmed that it is investigating how some patients in Darwin had their dialysis appointments cancelled, citing a nation-wide challenge in recruiting health workers.

The Northern Territory has the highest incidence and prevalence of kidney disease in Australia, with many people relying on frequent treatment to survive.

One of them is Stephen Goodall, who claimed he was turned away from a scheduled session at a Darwin renal unit last week, meaning he went without.

I came here and was told there was no capacity, and they had no staff and had to go away and come back, he said.

Mr Goodall wrote a letter to NT Health, not the first time that his appointments had been cancelled, and said he has seen a severe and obvious breakdown in the system treating renal patients, labelling it a collapse in quality of care.

He also claimed on one occasion last week that as many as nine renal patients were sent from a suburban renal unit to the Emergency Department at Royal Darwin Hospital with no dialysis treatment.

Nine patients were sent unexpectedly to the RDH Royal Darwin Hospital for ED, Mr Goodall said.

Austin Chin, whose daughter receives dialysis, told ABC Radio Darwin that his daughter was moved to the emergency department on the same day.

She went in on Monday and said she had to go up to RDH because she had an issue with staff shortages.

In a statement to the ABC, Chief Minister Natasha Fyles said all cancelled appointments had been rescheduled and patients were offered additional treatment.

NT health is investigating how some dialysis patients appointments were cancelled and referred to the RDH ED, the statement said.

There is a nation-wide challenge in recruiting for medical, nursing and allied health positions.

NT Health has a number of staffing levels across our hospitals and services, but these challenges are not unique to the NT, with all jurisdictions competing for health staff. NT Branch Secretary of the Nursing and Midwives Association, Cath Hatcher, said ongoing staffing issues across the health system were also affecting renal wards.

The ratio is normally two to three patients to one nurse, so they have to bump it up to three to four, she said.

Ms Hatcher said that the work required highly trained staff due to the nature of dialysis procedures.

She said that you can't simply take someone from the emergency department or maternity department and put them into the renal unit.

Ms Hatcher said that a solution to staff shortages would be to track the recruitment of more skilled nurses from overseas.

She said that we're working with the Department of Health to promote visas that have renal specific qualifications.

We can build up that workforce in that specialty area. Ms Fyles said dedicated renal staff work hard to ensure that Territorians needing dialysis continue to receive the best patient-centred care possible. NT Health apologises for any distress and disruption caused to patients and their families.