General News
16 July, 2025
Normanton dialysis patients set to return home
Family members are elated with the news after the North West HHS received critical funding.
The family members of dialysis patients forced to leave their homes in Normanton say they are rapt that loved ones will be able to return to the community next year.
The new Normanton Hospital will offer haemodialysis services after successful lobbying by local leaders, as well as the North West Hospital and Health Service.
“My brother Gibson has been away for three-and-a-half years,” said Joy Murray, speaking on behalf of her family.
“He’s in Townsville Hospital at the moment because he requires intensive treatment.
“During the time he’s been away, it’s a lot of stress on him and us.
“I think it’ll lighten up a lot of things for him because he’s been really depressed for the last 12-18 months thinking, ‘when am I gonna go home?’
“When you are away, you miss a lot of family events, including funerals.
“Then Gibson had a slight heart attack but the staff (at Townsville) have been wonderful.
“The cardiologists jumped on straight away and did their bit to try and make him better.”
Carpentaria Shire councillor Cherie Schafer said she was elated when told that Normanton would be getting a renal service.
Along with mayor Jack Bawden and other community members, Cr Schafer has been lobbying for many years to get the service in her home town.
Last year, she told North West Weekly of her efforts to get better data on the number of Normanton residents requiring dialysis but were no longer living in the Gulf.
“I felt that the statistics that were given about the community didn’t sound correct,” she said.
“We were being told that the statistics held at Mount Isa Hospital said there was only one patient requiring haemodialysis at Normanton – I felt this was not reflective of the actual statistics.
“The figures being given about renal needs seemed very low and, just being a local, I thought ‘what about this person?’ or ‘what about this person?’ The numbers didn’t add up. That’s what made me think about doing my own survey.”
The results gave the North West HHS further incentive to push for funding for the service.
“I remember early on when I was raising (the need for a renal service in Normanton), some of the comments were ‘be realistic’,” Cr Schafer said.
“But when I spoke to (North West HHS CEO Sean Birgan) after doing that survey, I was pleasantly surprised because he seemed on board with it, which meant it was going to be an easier process than if he wasn’t.”
Despite finding out the news several weeks ago, Cr Schafer had to keep it under wraps until it was made public by the health service.
“It was really hard to know that information and not be able to share it because it’s been such a personal thing,” she said.
“I was so excited, like literally I wanted to shout it.
“I wanted to ring the people like (dialysis patients) Gibson and Clarrie, but obviously I couldn’t do that.
“I’m really happy for the community and the families like Gibson’s family here.
“They don’t want to be living in the city. They want to be here.”
Mr Birgan said getting a renal service in Normanton had taken a lot of work from his team.
“This has been a long journey for the health service,” the CEO told North West Weekly.
“Over the last three years, we’ve expanded renal dialysis services in places like Mornington Island and Doomadgee and Cloncurry.
“It just seemed logical to me, as I’ve been out here now in the health service for three years, that we would plan to put renal dialysis into Normanton.
“Renal dialysis wasn’t part of the original planning (of the new hospital), but we’ve now allocated and identified an area in that new build, a multi-purpose room that we’ll be fitting out as part of the renal dialysis.
“The funding for that has actually come from a Commonwealth grant that the North West HHS applied for, which was just under $1.1 million.
“We’ll be building out an area inside the new hospital to accommodate the renal dialysis unit.
“Importantly, you can’t have a renal dialysis service without staff.
“We’ve now negotiated, as part of the health services agreement this year, to have the staffing component of the renal dialysis unit in Normanton recurrently funded.
“That’s a big step forward.
“So we’ve got the infrastructure, we’re in the process of building with the Commonwealth grant into the brand new hospital and we’ve now got the recurrent funding for the staff.
“So I would anticipate that in early 2026, we will have a fully functioning renal dialysis unit.
“The benefit is that it gets community members that are currently receiving haemodialysis in places like Cairns or Townsville, back home, back to Country, to have that service delivered in their home town, where they’re supported by family and friends.”