11 patients owe $1m-plus for dialysis

Eleven patients, mainly from Pacific island nations, have racked up bad debts of more than $1 million for life-saving kidney dialysis in central Auckland.

Dialysis treatment, usually with a kidney machine, purifies the blood of people whose kidneys are failing. It costs about $50,000 a patient a year.

In chronic kidney failure, patients may need to have regular dialysis for the rest of their lives, or until they can have a kidney transplant.

The Auckland District Health Board said yesterday it was owed $1,193,500 by the 11 foreign dialysis patients, none of whom was eligible for New Zealand state-funded health care when they started receiving it.

They had been in treatment for up to four years. Six were from Tuvalu, three from Tonga, one from Fiji and one from China.

One was also receiving treatment for tuberculosis.

Two had been ineligible patients but one of them had become eligible by gaining permanent residency and the other by obtaining a work permit. Two had died.

A further six or seven Samoan patients had been receiving dialysis, but were sent home as their country now has a dialysis unit, an uncommon facility for Pacific islands.

Dialysis is generally given only to those expected to live at least 18 months.

Elderly patients with other serious illnesses survive on average two years. Younger patients who are otherwise well can survive on dialysis for years.