Kidney Research UK

Statement on the Government’s new health service White Paper and the proposals to extend dialysis services into the community.

Kidney Research UK welcomes the rationale behind the Government’s proposal to improve the flexibility and convenience of dialysis for kidney patients. This would improve quality of life, as well as limiting travel and time lost to treatment. The charity also agrees with the Government's emphasis on the need to shift the focus of services towards prevention. However, the charity has major concerns over the Governments proposal to shift expenditure from hospitals to primary care and local community services, and would urge that adequate investment is put in place, at both primary and secondary level to ensure the success of the proposals.

Renal centres have long struggled to provide the level of care required for patients and Kidney Research UK’s recent national survey on the ability of renal units to provide appropriate vascular access is a case in point. The research found that patient infection rates in hospitals were high due to long waiting lists, a shortage of surgeons and late referrals. Simply transferring the provision of dialysis to small, local facilities will not solve the problem of capacity.

Dialysis facilities are expensive to set up, maintain and staff and there is a national shortage of trained dialysis nurses. If dialysis services are set up in GP surgeries, either the standard of care would need to be provided by visiting consultants or local health professionals would need to be thoroughly trained. Either way, the issues of staffing, travelling and training need to be made a priority, and adequate funding must be given to ensure the best service for patients. Dialysis services would also need to be strategically organised within any one region, with equal availability of services. They need to be deployed in units of a critical size to allow as many dialysis patients to be cared for as possible. This could only be done in a cost effective way if all satellites were intergrated with and run by with the local centre, as opposed to independent contracts set up by GP’s.

As the charity stated in its consultation with the Government over the White Paper, setting up more satellite dialysis units in local hospitals and developing home dialysis could be two approaches that would help alleviate some of the pressure in oversubscribed areas. However, if the Government goes ahead with plans to deliver dialysis in GP’s surgeries, then it must be with a commitment to improve the overall standard of renal services in the UK for both patients and professionals alike.

For more information on Kidney Research UK please click here for a contact number.