Gloria Friday was visiting her hometown of Borroloola a few weeks ago when she became sick.
"And then [the person who answered the phone] said to me, 'Well, I’m very sorry, we can’t do anything for dialysis patients'. I said: 'Why?'. She said: '‘You people ought to learn to look after yourself'. When BuzzFeed News contacted the clinic, it was referred to the NT Department of Health. Asked about Friday's claim, the department said confidentiality prevented it from commenting on specific patients.Friday is one of many renal patients from remote communities forced to move to the NT's urban centres to receive the treatment they need to stay alive. Eighty percent of dialysis patients in the NT areDialysis is expensive and complicated, and renal units are scarce.
"I don’t think that’s fair," she said."I’m on the sickness benefit, how do they expect me to live? My partner’s got to live and pay rent and buy food too, and pay bills." She also said Centrelink did not notify her of the problem until the debt was an unmanageable amount, and that she was planning to challenge the debt.