High-tech renal unit meets growing need

[okarol]

 By DAVID TAURANGA - Manukau Courier | Tuesday, 03 March 2009
High-tech renal unit meets growing need

The opening of the country’s largest renal unit in Counties Manukau is expected to relieve the strain caused by diabetes on the area’s health services.

The unit was opened at the Manukau SuperClinic by Health Minister Tony Ryall.

It will provide dialysis treatment for patients suffering from kidney failure, a common occurrence in the later stages of diabetes.

Head diabetes clinician Brandon Orr-Walker believes the needs of Counties Manukau’s dialysis patients will be well served by the clinic.

"A lot of effort has been put in to this state-of-the-art facility to make it the best possible unit in terms of location, accessibility and comfort," he says.

With 28 dialysis stations the unit will be able to provide 17,000 treatments each year for 112 patients.

That lifts the total number of dialysis stations to 66 at the SuperClinic and Middlemore Hospital.

But Dr Orr-Walker says that even while celebrating the unit’s opening, attention must turn to planning for the future.

A quarter of New Zealanders receiving dialysis live in Counties Manukau, a total of 437 patients – and that figure is projected to rise.

The number of people needing dialysis is rising at 5 percent a year, greater than our rate of population growth, he says.

"Capacity is going to be challenged in the near future because dialysis rates are going up due to diabetes in conjunction with obesity and smoking.

"It’s not just about the next dialysis unit.

"It’s also about what efforts you can make to prevent more people needing dialysis in the future."

Counties Manukau has one of the highest dialysis populations in Australia and New Zealand which he attributes to the region’s demographics.

Maori, Pacific Island people and Asian communities plus young and poorer communities are high risk groups for diabetes, Dr Orr-Walker says.

"This organisation prides itself on innovation which includes trying to come up with really good prevention programmes.

"Half of the dialysis patients got there from a diabetic complication so we’re working on detecting diabetes early, how to manage it and being proactive in preventing the disease.

"There is no one solution for everyone – we’ve got to come up with programmes that work for people who live here."

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/sundaystartimes/auckland/4865130a6016.html
.......PHOTO: INNOVATION: Health Minister Tony Ryall with dialysis patient Richard Wharemate at the opening of the new renal unit at the Manukau SuperClinic.