No one is more pleased to see the doors of the expanded Regional Nephrology Centre at Renfrew Victoria Hospital open than Ken McQuade.

McQuade was one of several patients who joined dignitaries and hospital officials to cut the ribbon on the new $12 million facility at a special event on Thursday, April 9 that drew a large crowd.

McQuade has been coming to RVH for the past five years for dialysis treatments.

He is thrilled with the new facility and was pleased to be at the official opening.

“This is great, it’s a beautiful spot. You couldn’t ask for better,” said McQuade, a retired auto shop owner who lives in Admaston-Bromley Township.

His dialysis consists of three trips to the centre each week for treatment that lasts four hours and 15 minutes each time. He’s there each morning at 7 a.m. and on dialysis days he goes home, has lunch and is tired out and usually naps. The days after each treatment are the good days when he feels stronger and has more energy to spend time with his family and on hobbies that include woodworking and boating.

“The next day I’m 100 per cent,” said McQuade.

The lifesaving dialysis that he gets so close to home means all the difference when it comes to enjoying his time with his wife Sharon and his children and grandchildren.

His kidney disease diagnosis meant big changes. “It’s quite a life change. Especially in your food and your diet,” he said.

McQuade is impressed with the expansion, which includes big windows and large rooms.

“I love the brightness and the space and the new chairs,” he said.

Plenty of parking right at the entrance of the centre is another feature he appreciates.

RVH is the only small hospital in Ontario that operates a regional dialysis program.

At the grand opening, medical director of the nephrology program Dr. Nicole Delbrouck said RVH was considering a regional program years before the rest of the province began to focus on regionalization.

Completion of the project brought to mind the Burl Ives song The Little Engine that Could, said Delbrouck.

“The Renfrew hospital is the little engine that could in this scenario,” she said.

“The other feature that is very important to emphasize is the will of this particular hospital to be hospitable to the needs of Renfrew county patients and in particular the renal population,” she said.

“The hospital undertook this program because the need was absolutely clear, we have the biggest county in Ontario, people were travelling huge distances,” said Delbrouck. “I did have people in their 80s who were doing this.”

At one time and for some patients, chronic kidney disease was a death sentence for patients unwilling to put their families and themselves through the ordeal of waking up in the middle of the night to drive hours several times each week for needed dialysis.

“Those people who were given the choice often declined,” said Delbrouck, because they couldn’t drive to Ottawa, couldn’t afford the frequent travel and weren’t prepared to bankrupt themselves or family members.

“The last person I knew that made that choice was someone who had been referred to us from the Ottawa program,” she said. The man was on a waiting list for the limited number of local beds that were available at the time. “He died in the process of waiting for a bed to become available. And I swore that would never happen again, that was absolutely unacceptable.”

Three local family doctors trained to be able to facilitate the local program, the only ones in Ontario and possibly the country to do that, she said. “We still enjoy tremendous support from our family physicians,” she said.

And from then on the engine has gathered steam, culminating in Thursday’s opening.

RVH works closely with and officials thanked the Champlain LHIN and Champlain LHIN Regional Renal Steering Committee, the Renal Administrative Leaders Network of Ontario (RALNO) and Ontario Renal Network (ORN) working groups and initiatives, and has links with The Ottawa Hospital Renal Program.

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