A new purpose-built renal dialysis unit is set to occupy the entire second floor of the new £17m Altrincham Hospital – with the capacity to provide around 15,000 dialysis treatments a year.
The new 20-station facility will replace the unit currently located at Wythenshawe Hospital and will be open six days a week. It will be able to accommodate 40 patients a day for dialysis treatment.
There will also be an adjacent four-station home dialysis training unit on the same floor, potentially allowing suitable patients to undergo dialysis at home. There is capacity to expand the home training facility to nine stations in the future.
The new Altrincham unit will also offer more facilities for patients, with a patient resource room and interview room and a dedicated patient entertainment system offering free television and radio channels. The patient resource room will have internet access and other educational materials for patients wanting to know more about their kidney disease.
Planning of the new renal service is being led by consultant nephrologist Dr Sandip Mitra and specialist nurses Sister Morag Doherty and Sister Gill Dutton.
It will also feature a dry powder concentrate mixing system, the first of its kind to be installed in the UK.
This will allow the highly concentrated salt solution used by the haemodialysis machines to be produced on site, instead of transporting large volumes of it by road.
“This is an exciting development for our renal dialysis service, bringing it much closer to patients in the Altrincham area,” said Dr Mitra.
“We are working with staff and patients to ensure that the service will continue without a break despite the relocation and we are all looking forward to the opening of the new unit next spring.”
Over 40,000 people are affected by kidney failure in the UK, with more than half receiving dialysis, a form of treatment that replicates many of the kidney’s functions, filtering the blood to rid the body of harmful waste, extra salt and water.
The new hospital is currently under construction on Railway Street in the town centre and is due to open in the spring.
