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Written by Stephanie Tod
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Thursday, 25 September 2008 |
Rural Health Week 2008 (28th September – 4th October) will rightfully highlight the specific challenges of hundreds of people in North East Scotland in accessing healthcare services and the negative impact this can have on the health and well being of people.
For people living in rural areas access to specialist treatment often involves considerable time spent traveling to hospital. This is the case for kidney patients who can spend up to 4 hours 3 times a week in hospital receiving their life-saving treatment. Life on dialysis is hard but there are ways to improve quality of life for kidney patients by providing local kidney services and allowing patients the option of home treatment.
There are over 6,200 people currently waiting for a kidney transplant, an annual increase of 8%, with just over 2,000 patients being lucky enough to receive one this year. There are 43,901 people in the UK receiving RRT according to the most recent Renal Registry Report. Although the majority of these will be eligible for a kidney transplant in the future, whilst they are waiting they have only two choices - hospital or home-based dialysis.
Current health policy relating to the care of patients advocates delivering care closer to the patient’s home. With current dialysis capacity issues and a focus on patient choice, shouldn’t more patients be able to choose a home-based treatment?
Samantha Addie
Dialysis Options
www.dialysisoptions.org
Dialysis Options is supported by Baxter Healthcare Ltd.
ADV 08/1065R
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