Kidney patients urged to opt for home dialysis

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Kidney patients urged to opt for home dialysis

Published Date: 16 March 2010
By Katie Baldwin

Only a fraction of kidney patients in Yorkshire are having their lifesaving treatment at home, figures show.

There are huge variations across the region in the number of people who can access home dialysis.

Research by healthcare firm Baxter found 22 per cent of people in Yorkshire carried out their own dialysis treatment at home.

But that varies from only 19 per cent of patients in Leeds and Bradford to almost 40 per cent in Doncaster.

Just three per cent of the region's kidney patients have haemodialysis at home, despite the vast majority of kidney patients needing that type of the treatment.

Another 19 per cent of patients have home peritoneal dialysis, another form of the treatment which is used by a minority of patients.

Campaigner Paul Taylor, who has home haemodialysis, said home dialysis was open to everyone.

"The take-up rates are quite low in this region," he added. There is a big push from the Government for more people to take up home dialysis."

The secretary of the St James's Hospital Kidney Patients' Association said there were various barriers, including whether the patient and their home was suitable.

"It's also about publicity from the hospital trust to promote it," he said. There's no publicity available in Leeds."

Mr Taylor, from Huddersfield, has had four kidney transplants which have all failed. He was undergoing regular haemodialysis at renal units but last October started having his treatment at home – which he says is going well, though there are issues to overcome.

Dialysis is given to patients whose kidneys are not functioning, to remove toxins from the bloodstream.

The most common type is haemodialysis, where the patient's blood is treated, which is used by 1,806 patients in Yorkshire . Usually the gruelling treatment involves spending several hours at a dialysis unit three times a week.

Healthcare firm Baxter have launched a campaign called "I'd Rather Be At Home" to increase the numbers of patients who can get home dialysis.

They say up to 80 per cent of patients would choose home dialysis if they could and claim treating more kidney patients at home could save the NHS thousands.


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    * Last Updated: 16 March 2010 11:34 AM

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