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Funding helps patients receive treatment at home
Published: 29 February, 2008
SPENDING long hours hooked up to a haemodialysis machine is bad enough, but travelling miles for the privilege makes it even worse.
Yet that is the fate of most patients from the North who regularly have to make long journeys to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness, or its satellite units, to undergo dialysis.
But Spinningdale woman Glenys Munro has just been given the opportunity to undergo the lifesaving treatment – which removes harmful wastes from the blood, built up as a result of kidney failure – in the comfort of her own home.She is one of a handful of selected Highland patients to benefit from around £30,000 recently made available by NHS Highland.
The funding has enabled rooms in their homes to be converted and fully equipped as a dialysis suite. It has also led to the appointment of a dedicated home haemodialysis nurse, Chris Ridden, who is overseeing the new project.
Extensive work, including new flooring and fitting power points and plumbing, has just been completed at Keas Cottage where Glenys lives with her young daughter, Lynn.
Her consultant renal physician at Raigmore, Dr Stewart Lambie, is excited about the move to haemodialysis at home but said that, far from being a new development, it represented a turning back of the clock.
He explained: "When dialysis first started back in the 1970s everyone was on home haemodialysis, but then it swung away to hospital-based treatment.
"Now it's swinging back again, and just recently there has been a recognition that dialysing people more frequently at home is better for them."
Dr Lambie explained that Glenys and the other patients were chosen because they fitted certain criteria and were thought to have the most to gain.
"We've selected those who live furthest away from a dialysis centre who are going to be fit enough and able to learn how to set the machine up," he said.
"It's quite demanding for the patient to learn how to do it, but they have a lot to gain. Home haemodialysis is a lot more flexible and patients can undertake it whenever they like.
"They will also have more dialysis. Instead of the four hours, three times a week, hospital patients currently receive they will be able to do three hours, six times a week, which will make a huge difference to them.
"More frequent dialysis will mean they need to take fewer tablets and will also give them more energy and a better appetite."
Glenys, who works part-time at Mark Banham's tree nursery, had been suffering from frequent headaches and high blood pressure for some years before being diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease in 2000.
She said: "I'm delighted to have been given this opportunity. It's a lot more convenient as I will be home for my daughter and will also be able to continue working. I am being given the chance to live as normal a life as possible."
She paid tribute to her daughter Lynn and sister Heather, a local nurse, without whose support she said she would be unable to carry out home dialysis.
The home haemodialysis project will be assessed once it has been running for a while, and it is hoped further funding will be forthcoming to extend it to include more patients from the North.
"We have plans to significantly increase our home haemodialysis programme," said Dr Lambie.
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