Dialysis boost for 60 patients

Mar 14 2008 by Liza Williams, Liverpool Daily Post

Dialysis boost for 60 patients

BUILDING work on a new unit which will transform the lives of patients with kidney disease is under way in Southport.

The long-awaited Southport NHS Dialysis Unit is expected to be fully operational early next year.

It will house 12 dialysis stations and provide services for up to 60 patients, currently travelling many miles for dialysis elsewhere in the region.

Campaigners and fundraisers visited the site on World Kidney Day yesterday to celebrate. Colin Jones, a member of the Southport Kidney Fund, said: “This is absolutely the best news ever. Southport has been waiting 20 years for this unit.

“I personally have been on dialysis for 15 years, and have been making the 45-minute journey back and forth to Waterloo. This new unit will be five minutes from my front door.”

Dr Leslie Grimshaw, of the Southport Dialysis Unit Fund, said the new unit was a fitting memorial to his late wife, June, who died following two years of dialysis at a number of units across the region.

He said: “It was my wife’s one wish that we would have a unit such as this in Southport. People don’t realise the toll that travelling backwards and forwards for dialysis takes, not just on the patients, but on their families as well. This unit is the fulfilment of my wife’s dream.”

Chronic kidney disease affects 5-10% of the general population and its incidence increases with age.

The Southport site is one of five across Cheshire and Merseyside which are part of the Government’s independent sector treatment programme.

lizawilliams