05 October 2011
New service transforms the lives of renal patients
A local man’s life is being transformed thanks to him becoming the first person to receive ‘home haemodialysis’ from Broomfield Hospital.
50 year old Michael Payne from Epping suffers from renal failure and has been visiting Broomfield Hospital three times a week for dialysis sessions for the past four years, but thanks to a new initiative he will now be able to do all of this in the comfort of his own home.
Rebecca Culpin, renal lead nurse said: “Being able to offer some of our renal patients the opportunity to receive their dialysis at home is a great step forward for them and our Hospital. Patients who wanted to carry out their dialysis from home could do so if they were receiving ‘peritoneal dialysis’ but for those who were not suitable for this the option is only haemodialysis, so now ‘Home Haemodialysis’ is another choice available to them.”
“Patients who have to come to hospital for haemodialysis, attend on average three times per week, whereas the home system offers patients the opportunity to enjoy the health and quality of life benefits of daily haemodialysis outside the hospital environment.”
The home system provides a special machine that the patient is trained to use in the hospital setting before having one installed at home. Michael Payne has received training in hospital over a two week period and will be supported by the trust’s home therapies team, led by senior sister Jennie Knight.
Jennie said: “The home therapies team have been trained to use the home system and be able to support the patient. The majority of the training with the patient takes place at the hospital, but we will also offer support at home. The home machine works in a different way to the ones that we use in the hospital, so it brings a lot of benefits for the patient. Dialysis helps to eliminate waste and fluids from the bloodstream when the kidneys can no longer do the job well enough to keep the patient alive. Due to the limited number of donor kidneys, the vast majority of people with kidney failure rely on dialysis.”
Michael Payne has been travelling to Broomfield hospital from his home in Epping three times a week, which each round trip, including the dialysis session, taking about seven hours each time, so the benefits for him are enormous. Michael continues: “When I heard about the possibility of being able to have my dialysis at home I was very keen as I knew it would make a huge difference to my life. With the home dialysis I will be able to do this for shorter amounts of time, but more often which will also bring other health benefits as it will take smaller amounts of fluid off over a few days at a slower speed to the hospital machines making you feel a lot better. Often after a dialysis session in the hospital I feel very tired and then have to face the journey home, so this will make such a difference. The machine that I have is portable so it means that I can have my dialysis anywhere – even abroad!”
Whilst home haemodialysis sounds like the way forward for patients with renal failure, it isn’t something that will be available for everyone. Rebecca Culpin continues: “Before a patient can be deemed fit for home haemodialysis they have to meet very strict criteria. They also have to be a self caring in the hospital environment, which means they must be able to understand their therapy and programme their own machine rather than having a nurse to do it for them. Initially there is quite a lot for the patient to learn, as they are responsible for setting up the machine and also attaching and disconnecting themselves. They need to be able to insert their own needles into their fistula (a vein under the skin that is surgically joined to an artery so that it is big enough to insert dialysis needles into) or have a relative trained. Our home therapies team provide the patient with all the support they need to make this a success.”
The Trust is hoping to increase the number of patients on home haemodialysis over the coming months and aims to have three patients on the programme by April 2012 with the expectation of 10% of the haemodialysis population from the Trust on home haemodialysis by 2015.
Dr Galil Ali, consultant nephrologist at Broomfield hospital said: “We already have the largest number of patients on peritoneal dialysis (home therapy) in Essex, so home haemodialysis, is an important milestone for Broomfield hospital, the renal unit and our patients.
Being able to offer home haemodialysis is the result of the hard works of many colleagues including the doctors, nurses, managers, and of course our dialysis patients. There is vast body of evidence that indicates that patients on home haemodialysis have less hospital admissions and a number of these patients can come off blood pressure tablets or at least significantly reduce the dosage.
They can be more liberal in their food restriction and normally have better phosphate and calcium control, it is good news all round.”
Rebecca concludes” Home haemodialysis brings so many benefits that we want to be in a position to rapidly increase the number of patients who use it. With more patients dialysing at home it means that fewer patients need to travel to the hospital unit, opening up more slots for patients that aren’t suitable to access this from home.”
ENDS
Media contacts : Jo Triggs tel: (01245) 514235 | Mobile : 0790 005 4948
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