Physician calls for dialysis patients to be moved to front of vaccine queue

An Ottawa doctor wants patients undergoing life-saving treatment for kidney failure to be moved higher on the COVID-19 vaccine queue, citingtheir risk of being hospitalized or dying from the illness assimilar to those in long-term care homes.

The city's vaccination campaign is well underway, with almost83,000 doses administered from toresidents and staff of long-term care and retirement homesto first responders.

One group of people left off that list so far are those with high-risk chronic conditions. This group is set to receive vaccines in Phase 2, which is slated tobegin next month. Which conditions make that listhasn't been released.

"The risk of [these patients] dying from this illness is very, very high and very similar to those individuals who live in retirement homes or nursing homes," said Dr. Pierre Antoine Brown, a nephrologist and medical director of the hemodialysis program at The Ottawa Hospital.

He referred to an Ontario study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal last month that looked at 12,500 patients undergoing dialysis between March and August 2020. Of the 1.5 per cent who contracted the illness,more than 60 per cent endedup in hospital and nearly 30 per cent diedfrom the illness. The mortality rate among non-infected patients was less than six per cent.

"These patients are [at] very high risk of acquiring COVID-19 and also, if they acquire the virus ... becoming very sick from it," he said.

Part of the risk of contracting COVID-19 comes from the necessary, life-saving treatment patients receive.

Most hemodialysis units are open areas where physical distancing is difficult at best, with each treatment lasting four hours, Brownsaid.

750 patients in greater Ottawa area

Brown acknowledged health-care officials had to make some difficult decisions at the start of the vaccination campaign to determine who would get inoculated first.

But with the vaccine supply increasing, he questions why there hasn't been a big push to vaccinate those on hemodialysis.

He said there are approximately 750 people undergoing the treatmentin the greater Ottawa area,including Hawkesbury, Cornwall and Winchester.

In a statement to CBC, Ottawa Public Health said it is working with health-care partners to vaccinate people with kidney disease and undergoing dialysis in Phase 2.

Another problem Brown foresees is the difficulty patients may have going tovaccination clinics, given their already burdensome dialysis schedule.

Hesuggests mobile clinics go to the hospitals wherepatients receive their dialysis. He says that could curb any potential vaccine hesitancy because of the trust patients may already have in familiar health-care providers.