COMMUNITY LEADER
Kidney health support for northern 
Indigenous communities
BY TYLER SHINGOOSE
St. Paul’s Hospital & Foundation’s  
“By Your Side” Campaign
S
t. Paul’s Hospital (SPH) & 
Foundation’s “By Your Side” 
Campaign aims to improve 
kidney care outcomes and 
experiences for patients across the 
region, from Davidson to the Atha-
basca basin. 
In addition to working towards a 
patient-centred approach to care, 
outcomes of the campaign also 
aim to address the disproportion-
ate impact of kidney disease on 
Indigenous communities. While one 
in 10 people in Saskatchewan are 
anticipated to be living with kid-
ney disease, that number triples to 
one in three amongst Indigenous 
populations. This disparity is often 
rooted in barriers such as limited 
access to education and care, as 
well as a historical mistrust of the 
health-care system. 
Through its three main pillars, the 
goals of the campaign are to remove 
barriers to diagnosis, improve the 
overall hospital experience and 
empower communities by providing 
a safe and welcoming environment 
for accessible health management. 
The first pillar of the campaign 
focuses on a pilot early screening 
program, which is the first in Sas-
katchewan. Rather than waiting for 
patients to come to the hospital, the 
campaign team travels to the com-
munities to create an environment 
for people to learn about kidney 
health and disease. 
With the aim to eliminate barriers 
of traditional health care – where 
patients may abandon the process 
of making multiple trips between a 
family doctor and a lab to get test 
results – the point-of-care screening 
brings a team into the community to 
perform all necessary assessments 
in one sitting. This includes a blood 
pressure test, creatinine test and 
blood test for immediate results to 
discern the patient’s potential for 
kidney failure within a five-year span. 
This approach is crucial because the 
body doesn’t display symptoms of 
The first Indigenous
Healing Centre, Kikâwînaw 
wîki (Our Mother’s Home).
22   
  Issue 1 – Summer 2026

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