The Northern Territory towns of Alice Springs and Tennant Creek will receive $13 million for accommodation to assist Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families affected by renal disease.


The new funding is the first step towards addressing some of the issues raised in the recently released Central Australia Renal Study.


The study by the George Institute focused on the provision of dialysis services in remote and very remote area. It was a joint initiative of the Australian Government in partnership with the Northern Territory, South Australian and Western Australian governments.


The study shows that the number of patients on dialysis in Central Australian in the last decade has more than tripled from 62 to 209. By 2020, this will have increased to between to between 312 and 479 patients.


“This effectively dislocates the patient from their family, impacting on the patient’s social and cultural connectedness to family and community, removing their capacity to be part of family and community life and to carry out family responsibilities,” he said.


A key finding of the Central Australian Renal Study revealed that housing and infrastructure development is a key priority to support renal patients from remote communities accessing renal treatment away from home.


The primary recommendation of this study is that a variety of different approaches to providing dialysis to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients is needed to allow them to have access to treatment as close to home as possible.


The Central Australian Renal Study is available at: http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/oatsih_central-renalstudy