A NEW dialysis unit is to open at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary to replace the one that will go when St Luke’s Hospital shuts down at the end of this year.
The £1.5m renal unit is set to handle 40 patients a week and is expected to open in the new year. It is around the same number now being treated at St Luke’s in Crosland Moor.
But it means some patients who now have to travel to Leeds for dialysis will be able to have it in Huddersfield.
Work is now is under way to convert former doctors’ quarters at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary into a modern unit with dedicated parking spaces.
It will be built and run by Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust which provides specialist renal services to patients across West Yorkshire.
Leeds Teaching Hospitals also has a service at Calderdale Royal Hospital for patients in the Halifax area. Both are nurse-led satellite units co-ordinated from St James’s University Hospital in Leeds.
The announcement will come as a relief to patients awaiting a decision on the future location of a dialysis unit.
Dr Emma Dunn, consultant nephrologist at Leeds Teaching Hospitals, said: “Renal patients spend a long time on dialysis so providing a facility as close to people’s homes as possible is a key part of our strategy.
“We are delighted to be working with Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust to create this state-of-the-art new facility on their Huddersfield Royal Infirmary site.
“As well as providing a more modern and comfortable environment for local renal patients, the new unit will have the potential for additional capacity built in.
“We hope this means some Kirklees patients who currently travel to Leeds for dialysis will be able to transfer to the new unit.”
As part of the spending on renal services a new water plant for kidney treatments will be installed at St James’s Hospital to replace out of date machinery.
Patients are connected to haemodialysis machines several times a week but they require highly purified water.
Directors agreed to spend £1.5m on the water treatment plant because it was installed in 1993 and does not meet national standards for renal water quality.
At a board meeting, Leeds non-executive director Mark Chapman said Huddersfield’s decision to close St Luke’s had presented them with a stark choice, to relocate the unit themselves or get a private company to do it.
