After a 10-year battle by elders and renal health workers in central Australia, the first remote South Australian dialysis clinic officially opened its doors this week at Pukatja (Ernabella), an Anangu community about seven hours south-west of Alice Springs. Seven patients, who were previously living in Adelaide, Port Augusta and Alice Springs for treatment, have already returned home to continue dialysis at the four-chair, two-nurse Purple House centre at Pukatja, 30km across the SA border in the Musgrave Ranges. Purple House is an Aboriginal community-controlled health service that provides dialysis in 17 remote communities and a mobile unit called the Purple Truck , which allows patients to head back home to visit family, for festivals, funerals and other cultural business. The Purple Truck this year trekked to Arnhem Land so that patients could attend Garma festival while receiving life-saving treatment. One of those in the chair at Garma was […]