A
Country Limits Diabetes Dialysis Treatment!
Could this be in store for the U.S. and other
countries?
With
diabetes becoming an epidemic in the world, countries
are having to make some difficult decisions to
limit care, they are just running out of resources.
Talks will be held to decide whether a kidney
patient from the Pacific Islands will be allowed
to continue dialysis at Auckland Hospital - treatment
he needs to survive.
The anonymous Tuvaluan man's fight for life saving
medical treatment is apparently the tip of the
iceberg.
Each year, hundreds of Pacific Islanders seek
treatment and thousands of dollars in unpaid bills
are left for the New Zealand tax-payer to pick
up.
The Health Ministry offered up guidelines telling
clinicians to give foreign renal failure patients
two weeks to make alternative arrangements, then
stop giving them dialysis.
But some argue that may be illegal.
Professor David Seedhouse, specialist in Medical
Ethics at Auckland University of Technology: "I
think a line has to be drawn about who you treat
when you have limited resources, but they have
put it in the wrong place ethically and legally.
Those policy guidelines need to be revised and
need to be revised urgently."
The government and public authorities are subject
to the Bill of Rights Act and are not allowed
to discriminate on the grounds of race or ethnicity.
But our dialysis service is already running at
capacity and the Pacific Islands' diabetes problem
is expected to double in the next 20 years. The
Tuvaluan patient receives dialysis three times
a week.
One solution might be to treat health costs for
Pacific Islanders separately.
In the case of the Tuvaluan man, his dialysis
is due to end on Tuesday, although the 30 year
old father of three is hoping his lawyer will
win him a two year temporary permit, so he can
be treated here as a New Zealander.
Costs about $70,000/yr to dialysis one patient...
They spend about $600,000/yr on overseas patients,
mostly pacific islanders...
The rate of diabetes among pacific island peoples
is expected to double over the next 20 years.
Renal dialysis unit at Auckland is running at
capacity...
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