The Portage District General Hospital's going to be able to help more people needing dialysis treatments.

The province has announced funding for a six-patient expansion at the facility.

Southern Health-Sante Sud Executive Director Acute, and Chief Nursing Officer Noreen Shirtliff calls it very good news.

Noreen Shirtliff

"The investment will allow patients to receive treatment at home, or as close to home as possible," she says, "And this has a big impact on their daily lives. We know that the rates of kidney disease and kidney failure are continuing to rise in the province, so this expansion will allow more patients to receive those services in Portage, close to home."

Shirtliff acknowledges they have some work to do to make the expansion happen.

"The news is new to us," she stresses, "So we'll just be beginning initial phases of planning for the expansion. One of the first things that we will need to do is to recruit and train staff. We don't know details at this point about how the six additional patients will come into accessing care in Portage, but we do have capacity to do that."

Shirtliff doesn't have a timeline yet for the start of the expansion, noting once nurses and other staff are recruited, the nursing training takes about 15 week.