Health warned over kidney care treatment patients
Thursday 25th February 2010, 2:56PM GMT.
Jersey Kidney Patients’ Association president Peter Morris with one of the units at the Hospital
CHRONIC under-investment by Health in the care of kidney disease patients could put lives at risk, campaigners have warned.
The president of the Jersey Kidney Patients Association, Peter Morris, said that his members had been requesting more staff and better training for years but their calls had fallen on deaf ears.
‘They are not listening to the fact that the need for renal care is growing,’ he said. ‘If they do not invest in staff and the unit, people will have to be shipped off the Island for treatment or they will have to withdraw services, which means that people will die.’
He explained that people in the advanced stages of kidney disease could not go without dialysis for more than around ten days and survive. Mr Morris spoke out after it was announced that no new patients would be able to have dialysis at home, but would have to have the treatment at the hospital unit because no one is available to show them how to do it.
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So…no States Members’ families have kidney problems then? Amazing how fast things get prioritised when it gets personal.
The whole hospital system is collapsing and nobody wants to take responsibility. They’re now too busy firefighting to plan anything for the future – that and one year budgets.
This wealthy Island should have a perfect hospital, school and infrastructure system – where did all the money go in the good years?
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#1 Indeed! Yet another case to make some other health treatment chargeable (drunken accidents, fights etc).
One UK study showed Peritoneal Dialysis to work out cheaper than other methods so it may be the cheaper option for Jersey also. Even with the cost of bringing in another one or two nurses for the unit it may still be cheaper than other methods.
The States need to do some more investigation or they could end up costing the taxpayer more by withdrawing PD!
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The Assistant Health Minister herself said that Hemodialysis ran at a cost of £26,000 per patient per year, whilst Peritoneal was only £14,000.
But to her they are all just words and numbers. If she had to go to the hospital 3 times per week for hours on end, disrupting family life, disrupting the ability for a NORMAL life, then maybe this would be reconsidered.
The Renal Unit is understaffed, and like anyone who has ever been in contact with them knows, the team there do a fantastic job, and I couldn’t praise them enough. But they are working too hard, for too long hours, and when your own health is put at risk, something has to be done. I just wish the funds could be allocated from somewhere else, like #2 stated, how much money is spent on drunken fighting on a Friday/Saturday night? How about they pay for their OWN medical bills & treatment when their condition is self inflicted?
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I was on PD for over 2 years prior to getting a transplant last November. If I’d had to go onto heamo I wouldn’t have been able to continue working full time throughout my treatment and would most likely have had to give up work and go onto benefit for 2 years.
This won’t apply to every heamo patient but will inevitably apply to some, therefore added to the increased cost of heamo as a treatment for those patients who would otherwise be on PD and you can see that money is not being saved at all, rather more is being spent plus quality of life suffers for those who would have chosn PD.
The unit can’t cope with more heamo patients without patient care suffering, there simply aren’t enough staff.
Stop this short term thinking and continue to provide PD, it offers patients a choice and for those that want PD much greater freedom, it also saves NOT costs money, worse part is people may die if unable to transfer from heamo to PD when heaamo ceases to be effective, 3 people die every day waiting for a transplant.
Typical states short termism
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