Anne-Marie Nissen, a renal nurse for 21 years at the fictional Kowhai Sound Hospital, handed in her resignation on Tuesday, shocking colleagues who had expected her to lead the opening of a new 10-chair dialysis clinic. She will instead join its first group of patients, after her kidney disease progressed to the point that doctors advised regular treatment.
The clinic is due to open on 2 November in a former bank suite at a supermarket complex on Dee Street, giving Nissen a place for treatment close to home. The 59-year-old says she designed the service around the long hours patients spend travelling and waiting — without knowing, when planning began, that she might soon need it herself.
The nurse becomes a patient
Nissen moved to Invercargill more than two decades ago and built a career helping people manage kidney failure. She was diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease in 2024. Her kidney function has since fallen, and she expects to begin haemodialysis three times a week once her doctors confirm the start date.
She told colleagues about her condition at a meeting this week, then explained why she was leaving. “I have spent years telling people that treatment should fit around a life. Now I have to believe it myself,” she said. Nissen plans to leave the hospital before the clinic begins treating patients.
I have spent years telling people that treatment should fit around a life. Now I have to believe it myself.
Anne-Marie Nissen, renal nurse
Dialysis moves beside the checkout
The new unit is being built behind the supermarket’s main floor, with its own entrance and a separate treatment area. The fictional Kauri Health Network says it can serve up to 42 people across staggered sessions. Until now, some patients from smaller towns have travelled as far as 146 km (91 miles) for treatment in Invercargill.
Thomas Hunter, who travels from a nearby rural district for dialysis, said the new location could give patients time back without making treatment feel like an errand. “Three trips a week takes over your calendar. If this works, I can get home earlier and keep more of my ordinary routines,” he said.
The health network has budgeted NZ$5.6 million (about €3.1 million) for the clinic’s fit-out and first three years of operation. Renal services director Hanna Ludwig said the supermarket lease was cheaper than building a standalone unit, but the service would be reviewed after six months. “We will publish the waiting times and the number of appointments kept, not just count the chairs,” she said.
Nissen will not supervise the clinic or receive preferential treatment, Ludwig said; her place on its patient list will follow the same medical assessment as everyone else’s. The nurse has already cleared her desk, but kept the hand-drawn layout she used to argue for a treatment room with windows. When the doors open, she hopes to see it from the other side of the conversation.
