Our fury at lack of dialysis home care

[okarol]

Published Date:  28 March 2008

Our fury at lack of dialysis home care

By Staff Copy

A GRANDFATHER undergoing life-saving kidney dialysis has criticised his NHS trust for denying him home treatment for cost reasons over the last four years – despite it being almost £90,000 cheaper than hospital care.
Brian Wilson, 58, of Northallerton has undergone dialysis for four hours a day, three days a week for over a decade at a hospital 16 miles away from his home.

Four years ago his specialist recommended him for home treatment - which would have allowed wife Christine, 58, to look after him while he received evening dialysis.

But North Yorkshire and York PCT has denied him this because it was not ‘cost-effective’ - despite Mr Wilson’s consultant calculating they would have saved money if they had granted him his wish.

Treatment delivered by his clinic costs around £200 per session but home treatment costs just £60 - meaning the PCT have unnecessarily paid £125,000 in the period since he was recommended for home treatment.

Home treatment would have cost less than £38,000 over the same period, leaving the PCT nearly £90,000 out of pocket.

Mr Wilson is now being forced to stop work as he can no longer afford to take time off to attend the nearest clinic.

He said: "I'm so angry about this. In 2004 my specialist recommended home treatment, and the PCT told me it was my right to have it and it was their duty to supply it, but nothing's happened. I've just hit a brick wall and I'm no further forward in all that time.

"I must have sent more than 50 letters to them. They have dug their heels in. They are trying to balance their books because they made an awful mess of their finances.”

Mr Wilson added that he was now planning to sell his printing business because he is still not receiving home treatment.

He said: "Unfortunately with my illness you just don't know what's going to happen.

"Going to the hospital seriously restricts my ability to work because I miss nearly two days a week so I am going to have to give up which I really don't want to do.”

Andrew Paterson, a consultant for the local NHS Trust, confirmed that if Mr Wilson had been allowed home dialys
is when he first asked for it, the PCT would have saved money.

Mr Paterson said: "The sad irony is that, had the PCT authorised Mr Wilson's home haemodialysis when first requested, North Yorkshire and York PCT would now be recouping the savings which this treatment offers over satellite haemodialysis, so reducing the considerable financial pressures they now face."

Mr Wilson’s campaign was backed by his local MP and former Conservative leader William Hague who wrote to PCT chief executive Janet Soo-Chung in October.

Dr Soo-Chung replied: "In line with our strategic commitment to deliver our 2007-8 savings targets to reduce the PCT's inherited financial deficit, and the requirement to achieve in-year financial balance, all service commissioning developments in need of potential investment have to demonstrate value for money and meet cost-effectiveness and affordability criteria."

Last Updated: 27 March 2008 11:11 AM

http://www.northallertontimes.co.uk/northallerton-news/Our-fury-at-lack-of.3922358.jp

[stauffenberg]

Imagine telling a human being he is going to be allowed to deteriorate on in-center hemodialysis because it is not 'cost effective' to give him high quality, at-home dialysis, which would extend his lifespan and improve his health.  The severity of the cost-effectiveness criteria, however, is set by the willingness of the British people to pay the taxes which support free medical care from the government, and this wilingness has continually decreased as the American right-wing ideology has spread over the entire world in recent years  The cost of one person's selfishness is another's death, no where seen more starkly than in the equilibrium between taxation levels and dialysis provision in a public healthcare system..

[paris]

This is insane.  Along the same lines, my neph's nurses told me last week that the clinic gets paid the same amount from insurance/Medicare for PD patients as they do for in-center patients, even though the PD patient only comes in once a month.  They tell people it is because there is always a nurse available for you 24/7. My neighbor has cancer and was denied coverage from her insurance for experimental chemotherpy.  She has had many reaccurances of cancer and has reached the maximum of her coverage. The chemo was $35,000 out of pocket.  They had to take a loan on their home.  She says when it comes back again, she will just die because she can't afford to live.   Health care around the world needs to change.    And this man needs to be allowed to have dialysis at home.

[kitkatz]

Welcome to my world.  I am at the brick wall, too. The dialysis center will not work with me because I refuse to change my work schedule! They want me to take six weeks off of work and then it might be longer.  Helllooo! I have a house payment to make! Seeing as I am the only breadwinner right now in the household, I had better keep the job as long as I can.