It has been 10 months since the home-style dialysis unit was set up for patients strong and willing enough to undertake their own treatment at the Cooma Hospital but more needs to be done.

Cooma-Monaro Regional Dialysis Group vice president Barbara Scanes addressed members of the University of the Third Age at their monthly discussion meeting last Friday at Dodds Hotel.

So appalled by the agonising three-day-a-week treatment that patients with kidney failure endure and the lack of government support, participants at the meeting vowed to keep fighting.

There are about to be four patients accessing the service at Cooma, which is not staffed and runs under the wing of the Canberra Dialysis Centre.

Patients rely on buddies to assist them with their own dialysis at Cooma, which has been working well since the unit’s inception 10 months ago.

But as the next election draws near the group have joined forces with some members of the U3A to get the rest of the job done.

As more patients use dialysis the need for more self-dialysing chairs at the hospital grows.

Volunteer ‘buddy’ Robyn Mould told the group of her concerns about cleaning and sterilisation if people begin sharing the machines.

“At the moment there are three chairs. The third one will be hooked up to the machine when it’s needed but so far each patient has their own chair and their own machine. Now if there are six patients in the future their dialysis days will have to fit in the extra patients.

But there are no guarantees the other patients will clean the machines properly,” Mrs Mould said.

Mrs Mould said the machines are currently cleaned after each use in a specialised way with a maintenance clean once a fortnight and a more comprehensive clean and filter change once a month.

If usage increases maintenance will also have to increase.

“I’m worried that maybe the person using the machine beforehand won’t always be as thorough as I am,” she told the group.

With government elections kicking off the group decided to have another go and see if a fully operational satellite facility for Cooma could be established.