HSC officially opens doors of new transplant wellness centre

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This article was published 23/04/2021 (1629 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For Manitoba transplant patients, it means streamlined care at a new, state-of-the-art Winnipeg clinic. For its staff, it is a dream come true.

The Health Sciences Centre Foundation this week is officially launching its $4.5-million HSC Transplant Wellness Centre.

“We’re excited to announce the official opening of this clinic… years in the making, that will materially improve patient care for Manitobans requiring transplants, not only now, but in the future,” said Jonathon Lyon, foundation president and chief executive officer. “The foundation is incredibly grateful to our amazing donors.”

The new space has already had an impact on patients and staff, alike.

Saad Abdulrasool, 49, received a kidney transplant via the wellness centre last July.

Abdulrasool arrived in Winnipeg, after moving with his wife and three school-aged children to Turkey from Iraq, and then to Canada in 2017. Soon after arriving in the country, he began to feel unwell — so unwell Abdulrasool thought he might not survive.

A family doctor sent him for blood work — the results pointed to signs of kidney failure. Abdulrasool was referred to the transplant centre, where last July, he went under the knife.

“I am very better. I can breathe. I can eat very well. I can play or do homework with my kids,” he said in an interview. “Before I could not really do anything, because always I’m dizzy. I could not sleep very well.”

Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, doctors have been closely monitoring his post-transplant recovery process through video calls, he said.

“All the doctors there are perfect. They’re doing a great job. They help you to be alive again,” Abdulrasool said, adding the transplant has given him the freedom to continue studying English at Red River College.

Dr. Peter Nickerson, medical director of Transplant Manitoba, welcomes the department’s first major office upgrade since it was founded in 1969. The centre began transitioning into the new space last summer.

“It’s fantastic. It’s something we’ve been dreaming of,” he said. “It’s night-and-day.”

Nickerson anticipates the new environment will continue to bring the team of transplant doctors, nurses, dieticians, pharmacists and social workers closer together — physically and in spirit.

The old office was physically disjointed, with transplant specialists stationed all over the HSC campus. The new, contiguous space has eliminated the need for staff to cross the building to meet.

“It’s built a real sense of team,” Nickerson said.

New to the space are six additional clinic rooms, an on-site bloodwork area, and Telehealth virtual care visits. The spacious waiting room is a bonus in the time of social distancing, Nickerson said.

“Had we not moved prior to the second (pandemic) wave into this space, we would have been in an impossible situation trying to see our patients in remote locations — apart from telephone-type conversations,” Nickerson said.

HSC is the only hospital in Manitoba that performs transplants, apart from St. Boniface, which specializes in heart transplants.

HSC consolidated all its transplant services in one area. Nickerson believes bringing patients together in one cohesive space will also have a positive impact.

“We’ve had great feedback already from our patients,” he said.

Nickerson highlighted how the nature of transplants necessitates patients make periodic visits for years and even decades after their initial procedure. He expects the new wellness centre to be a place where patients will feel comfortable, calm and welcome.

“Transplant is a significant growth opportunity within health care, to again, allow Manitoba to get transplants, which will give them a better quality of life, a longer life and a more wholesome life — and that’s what it’s all about,” he said.

The clinic will play host to in-person orientations for those interested in joining its living kidney donor program, once pandemic restrictions ease.

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca