Kidney patients group calls for return of home dialysis
- Published
A kidney patient support group in Jersey has expressed concern that home dialysis is still not being offered to new patients.
The home dialysis service temporarily stopped for new patients in 2010 because of funding and staffing issues.
The Kidney Patients Association said despite being told it would resume soon, a year on it is still not happening.
The Health department said a new junior doctor had been appointed for the unit.
Peter Morris, from the Jersey Kidney Patients Association, said: "If we are going to have a fiscal stimulus fund to help young people off our employment lines, why are we not training them in nursing care?"
In a statement, Health and Social services said: "The majority of individuals choose to have haemodialysis in the hospital but, for those who prefer peritoneal dialysis, a training period lasting several weeks is undertaken at home.
"Nursing staff spend several mornings each week with each patient to train them. In that same time, that nurse could be treating six or seven patients at the hospital undergoing haemodialysis," it said.
"At a time when there is a general shortage of trained specialist nurses in the UK for us to recruit from, renal services are attempting to optimise care by choosing haemodialysis for the majority of patients."