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THEBACHA/FORT SMITH - Fort Smith resident Clara Abraham travels to Yellowknife three times a week to receive four-hour dialysis treatments.

Clara Abraham currently has no other option but to travel to Stanton Territorial Hospital in Yellowknife to receive much needed dialysis. She is hoping to soon be able to get treatments in her home of Fort Smith. - Mike Bryant/NNSL photo

She has no other option but to travel back and forth as the clinic in Fort Smith is not currently offering the service.

"I'm getting tired of this trip," said Abraham. "Nobody is getting back to me and telling me how much longer I have to do this."

Dialysis is needed to aid an individual when they have suffered lost kidney function, which can be temporary or permanent.

Abraham has been making the trip to and from Stanton Territorial Hospital for nearly six months and said it is exhausting. She gets on a plane at 7:15 a.m. and takes a flight back to Fort Smith at 5:45 p.m.

"I thought it was just going to take a couple treatments," said Abraham. She said if she had realized she wouldn't be able to receive her treatments in Fort Smith anytime soon she would have rented an apartment in Yellowknife.

"At least then I could've had a rest," adds Abraham.

Abraham is also trying to take care of her six-year-old granddaughter and four-year-old grandson, who are left with a sitter during the day.

"There's three machines here not doing anything," said Abraham.

There are dialysis machines in Abraham's community, but according to Robert Tordiff, CEO of the Fort Smith Health and Social Services Authority, the health centre has suffered "periodic closures" due to staffing shortages over the years, and the machines are currently not in use.

He said once there are nurses trained to give dialysis at the Fort Smith location, the service will be offered again.

"Currently the only dialysis (treatments) in the Northwest Territories are in Stanton Territorial Hospital and at the hospital in Hay River," explained Tordiff.

Patients in smaller communities attend whichever hospital is closer.

But someone in Fort Smith would go to Yellowknife as opposed to Hay River because a flight to the capital city is 45 minutes, as opposed to a drive that is around three hours, said Tordiff.