SASKATOON — Months after leaving her home in Denare Beach to receive lifesaving medical care, Maureen McBratney received a chance to come home for the holidays and get the care she needs - but she’s now back in Saskatoon, waiting for a chance to fully return home.
Back in June, McBratney was rushed from Denare Beach to Flin Flon with what would later be diagnosed as end-stage kidney failure. She would be medevaced from Flin Flon to Saskatoon for further treatment, where her condition would stabilize after emergency dialysis.
McBratney now requires dialysis care - that care is available in Flin Flon at Flin Flon General Hospital, but despite having grown up in Flin Flon and living 15 minutes away from the hospital, administrative hang-ups around being a Saskatchewan resident have caused her to be blocked from receiving that care. Since June, McBratney and her husband Greg have mainly had to stay in Saskatoon with friends because the care she cannot receive near home is available in the city. The cost of staying in the city and keeping their place back home has been paid out of the family’s pockets, except for proceeds from fundraisers and meat draws.
Weeks after McBratney was forced to move south, she and her family went on a media blitz, hoping that public attention to her story would help move her situation forward. She and Greg were interviewed by news outlets, sharing her story nationally.
Months later, McBratney was able to finally return home for two weeks over the holidays and receive dialysis at Flin Flon General Hospital while staying at her family home in Denare Beach. McBratney’s care was covered by a transient request and approved by all management groups involved - in November, a change was made for Flin Flon General Hospital that would allow patients in Saskatchewan to access dialysis care, letting one of six spots be used by a Saskatchewan resident.
However, McBratney’s good fortune did not last. She is not at the top of the priority list to receive that open dialysis spot in Flin Flon, says her family - after the holidays, the McBratneys had to return to Saskatoon for dialysis care, where they remain as of press time.
For most of the past seven months, the McBratneys and their family and friends have advocated for Maureen to receive the care she needs near home. Progress has come at times, say her family, but it has been slow and the issue is still unresolved.
“We are told it is a matter of when not if and that’s amazing, but when is when? How much longer do we wait?” said Paige Baschuk, McBratney’s daughter.
“The stories that ran in the news truly helped put pressure on people to listen up and to make policies change. We are hoping to do that again to get some answers and find when this might all come to an end to help my parents plan for their future.”
Baschuk said she is hoping to find out more about Shared Health Manitoba’s plans for the Flin Flon dialysis unit and whether it can be expanded to include her mom- while the hospital itself is administered by the Northern Health Region, the dialysis services are covered by Shared Health.
“We need to know what the commitment is to expanding the dialysis unit in the Flin Flon General Hospital to allow more spots for Saskatchewan residents at the site. How many spots will open and when is that going to happen?” said Baschuk.
“What is the commitment to train/hire more staff for the dialysis unit in the Flin Flon General Hospital to cover the expansion for more spots? Has any hiring or training started? When will it begin?”
At least once, Baschuk said talks between her family and health administrators has had to be restarted - leadership had apparently been told McBratney’s issue had been solved, when in reality it had not been.
“There seems to be a lack of communication between government and health care. On two different occasions now, someone from Shared Health and from the Manitoba health ministry have expressed that they thought this was resolved specifically for my family.”
In October, McBratney told The Reminder that she missed seeing her friends and family, most of whom still live in the north.
“I’d rather be at home with my daughter and son-in-law, my son, my grandson, friends, my dogs, going to Bomber games,” she said at the time.
“It’s awful having to Facetime every night with a five-year-old, who at the end of the call with his grandma, he’ll say, ‘You need to come home - I miss you.’ And I have to say, ‘I’m sorry sweetheart, I can’t yet.’ ‘Why?’ “Well, Grandma doesn’t know that yet.’ Five-year-olds are smart, they hear things - the other day, our call ended with him saying, ‘the politicians need to let Grandma come home.’ Five-year-olds shouldn’t need to do that.”
“My mom, dad and our families deserve to know so that we can figure out which path we must continue on to get my mom home. The financial and emotional stress has taken its toll and my parents and family are struggling. We need some definitive answers as soon as possible,” said Baschuk.
