Foreign aid budget should fund dialysis says doctor

By MARTIN JOHNSTON and NZPA

Treatment for a Tuvaluan man facing the loss of his lifesaving kidney dialysis treatment at Auckland Hospital should be financed from the foreign aid budget, a medical chief says.

Government ministers say the idea is worth considering.

The Herald revealed that the man's life hangs in the balance under a Government clampdown on free health care for foreign patients.

Health Ministry and hospital officials will meet today to decide whether the 32-year-old will be allowed to continue the treatment. Without it, doctors say, he would die within a fortnight.

The Government says he is in New Zealand illegally and is ineligible for ongoing dialysis, which purifies the blood. But Health Minister Annette King said the man's status needed clarification. His wife, a Cook Islander, had New Zealand rights.

But the Auckland District Health Board's chief medical officer, Dr David Sage, said that instead of denying treatment to cases like the Tuvaluan man, they should be financed from the Government's foreign aid budget.

"What we are having is pressure on a local hospital budget being forced into ... giving humanitarian treatment to non-eligible patients and Auckland City residents facing an equivalent reduction in their share of the pie.

"To dialyse a patient for a year is equivalent to five hip-replacement operations. With our totally capped budget we are not able to compensate if we have to get into treating ineligible patients.

"This shouldn't be an issue for Vote Health. It should be a national approach."

Overseas Development Assistance Minister Marian Hobbs said she would look into the idea.

Ms King said Samoa was subsidised through its aid programme to treat patients it nominated. This could be discussed with Tuvalu by officials.