CALEB NICKERSON
SHAWVILLE March 5, 2018
On March 5, local media were invited to the Shawville Hospital for a press conference to preview the layout of the new satellite dialysis unit that is currently in the early stages of construction.
Attended by local MNA André Fortin and Pontiac Community Hospital Foundation member Allan Dean, the hospital’s Director of Nursing, Gail Ryan gave the presentation and answered questions on the details of the project.
Dean lead the meeting off by saying how pleased he was that the long-awaited project was finally underway. Fundraising for the project began back in September 2007, and has cumulatively brought in close to $700,000 from the local community.
“That unit is now coming to fruition. We can see it coming to fruition, construction is beginning downstairs, and so on,” he said, thanking the hard work of the community, as well as Fortin. “Without André’s input, this project would never have gotten this far, he was instrumental.”
Ryan went through the components of the unit, which began with a waiting room and a locker room for patients to store their clothes and valuables. They then go to a weigh station before they are directed to their chairs.

Dialysis is a process used for people that have lost function in their kidneys. The patients are hooked up to a machine and over the course of four hours, their blood is filtered and replaced.
The unit contains six dialysis stations, partitioned from one another but open towards the nursing station in the centre.
An additional machine sits in an isolation room, to be used for patients with infections and the like.
“We can treat five patients in the morning, five patients in the afternoon,” she said, explaining that the unit would be open six days a week and dialysis patients typically require treatment three times a week. “We can offer services to 20 patients form the get go.”
Ryan added that there are currently 13 patients in the region requiring dialysis, but more could be coming.
“In the near future, there are always several coming down the line that will need a dialysis, unless other options are offered,” she said.
In the hallway around the periphery, there is an office for a visiting nephrologist, or kidney specialist, who Ryan said would hopefully visit around once a month. The new machines also have the capability of being monitored from Hull, and specialists can even use video conference technology to assess patients remotely.
The hall on the periphery allows staff to access the storage and meeting rooms around the unit without disturbing the patients receiving their treatment.
Four new nursing positions would be created by the construction of the unit, and Ryan said there would be more support and technical staff as well. She said that the training of the nurses would start closer to the start of the unit’s opening, so they could start work right away.
Construction crews are currently in the preliminary stages of the project, which Ryan estimated would be complete around the end of the summer. The administrative offices that were formerly occupying the space were transferred elsewhere in the hospital complex.
“It’s now, it’s starting. You never really know when a construction project [will] end, but we’re aiming for the end of the summer,” she said. “As an institution, we’re very happy with the support we’ve had from the Hospital Foundation, and our minister. It’s very important to recognize the need of local patients.”
Fortin agreed with Ryan, and thanked both her and Dean for their contributions to the unit.
“It’s a project that was thought up by Pontiac people and was funded in great part, by Pontiac people. It really is our community project,” he said.
“I think that it’s comforting that we have this service available to people. I just want to congratulate Allan for all his hard work on the file and that goes for the entire foundation,” Fortin concluded.