Cairns Hospital’s new home dialysis training centre opened
Published Thursday, 13 December, 2007 at 09:27 AM
Minister for Health
The Honourable Stephen Robertson
More renal patients requiring dialysis will be able to perform their own treatment at home thanks to Cairns Base Hospital’s new $250,000 home dialysis training centre, Health Minister Stephen Robertson said today.
Mr Robertson was in Cairns to officially open the new Lake Street centre which was partly funded by $85,000 raised by Cairns Earlville Rotary, in conjunction with Cairns Mulgrave Rotary Club.
The Rotary Home Dialysis Training Centre will initially have four haemodialysis chairs for training – with room for further service expansion – and be staffed by two clinical nurses and one registered dialysis trained nurse.
A further two chairs to train patients in home peritoneal dialysis will be located in the hospital’s Renal Unit.
Mr Robertson said chronic kidney disease affected one in seven Australian adults and was on the rise.
“Cairns Base Hospital is already the third-busiest dialysis hospital in Queensland after the Princess Alexandra and the Royal Brisbane and Women’s hospitals in Brisbane.
“This new training centre will be of enormous benefit to renal patients both in Cairns and those living as far away as the Cape and Torres Strait.
“Haemodialysis in the hospital can take up to six hours per session and has to be done three times a week.
“Training patients to do their own dialysis at home means they will no longer spend their life travelling between home and hospital.
“At home, they can do shorter sessions over more days or undergo dialysis while they sleep.
“That means a better quality of life with people avoiding lengthy visits to hospital, greater independence and the ability for some to return to work.’’
Mr Robertson said home haemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis machines are provided free to patients but remain the property of Queensland Health.
“I want to thank the Cairns Earlville and Cairns Mulgrave Rotary clubs for their public spiritedness in supporting this important health initiative,’’ he said.
“Their generosity will help a lot of people in Far North Queensland for many years to come.”
Cairns Base Hospital Director of Renal Medicine Dr Murty Mantha said the hospital carried out 11,647 dialysis treatments during 2006, which was 10.5 per cent more than the 10,539 treatments carried out in 2005.
“We currently have 20 patients undergoing home haemodialysis and around 42 patients undergoing home peritoneal dialysis.
“Only 12-15 per cent of our current haemodialysis patients do home haemodialysis and we aim to increase this to 30 per cent.
“Approximately 30 per cent of our patients undergoing less intrusive peritoneal dialysis do home dialysis and we aim to increase that rate too.”
Dr Mantha said the development of the home dialysis training centre was part of a steady expansion of renal medicine services at Cairns Base Hospital.
The hospital recently received $400,000 in funding to set up a new Chronic Kidney Disease Team, plus additional funding to appoint a full-time renal access co-ordinator.
The Chronic Kidney Disease Team – including a third renal medicine specialist - will be assembled early next year and will be responsible for developing and delivering a training, education and kidney disease prevention campaign across the Far North.
“Through the efforts of the Chronic Kidney Disease Team, we hope to reach people who are at risk of kidney failure early enough to prevent them reaching end-stage renal failure
“We’re aiming also to target the Indigenous community right across the Far North.’’
Dr Mantha said the choice of dialysis programs depended upon patient-related medical and non-medical factors. Patients can learn to do home peritoneal dialysis in about two weeks, while home haemodialysis requires about 12 weeks of training.
NOTE : Home Dialysis Fact Sheet Attached
MEDIA: Paul Lynch 3234 1190
HOME DIALYSIS FACT SHEET
• A home dialysis training centre provides training for people in the procedures and use of the equipment necessary to dialyse themselves at home, increases their self-sufficiency and avoids their having to visit the hospital several times a week.
• Anyone who expresses a desire to dialyse themselves at home is accepted for training. The choice of dialysis methods – peritoneal dialysis or the more intensive haemodialysis – depends upon patient-related medical and non-medical factors.
• Peritoneal dialysis involves the insertion of a small tube in a patient’s stomach, through which dialysis fluid from a special bag can be flowed into the peritoneal cavity to cleanse the blood through a process called “exchange”. A machine is required to assist the flow between bag and stomach if peritoneal dialysis is to be done overnight.
• Haemodialysis involves filtering a patient’s blood through a machine, drawing it into the machine from an intravenous fistula and returning the filtered blood to the body.
• Home dialysis requires some alterations to the patient’s home plumbing and electrical systems. In the case of plumbing, additional piping and a reverse osmosis machine have to be installed to filter all water used for dialysis which has to be pure and sterile. In the case of electrical supply, back-up generators usually are installed to provide emergency back-up power. Queensland Health meets these costs.
• Once patients have been set up for dialysis at home, they are provided with an emergency contact, should anything go wrong that they cannot fix themselves. They are also visited at regular intervals, usually every three months, so that periodic maintenance can be carried out on the machines.
• Currently, the Cairns Hospital Renal Medicine Department has 20 patients undergoing home haemodialysis and around 42 patients undergoing home peritoneal dialysis. Most are in the Cairns area but some are as far away as the Cape and the Torres Strait.
• Each home haemodialysis machine costs around $18,000, while a home peritoneal dialysis machine costs about $10,000. These machines are provided FREE to patients but remain the property of Queensland Health.
• The cost of supporting home dialysis works out at about $10,000-$20,000 a year less per patient then doing dialysis in the hospital.
Mr Robertson was in Cairns to officially open the new Lake Street centre which was partly funded by $85,000 raised by Cairns Earlville Rotary, in conjunction with Cairns Mulgrave Rotary Club.
The Rotary Home Dialysis Training Centre will initially have four haemodialysis chairs for training – with room for further service expansion – and be staffed by two clinical nurses and one registered dialysis trained nurse.
A further two chairs to train patients in home peritoneal dialysis will be located in the hospital’s Renal Unit.
Mr Robertson said chronic kidney disease affected one in seven Australian adults and was on the rise.
“Cairns Base Hospital is already the third-busiest dialysis hospital in Queensland after the Princess Alexandra and the Royal Brisbane and Women’s hospitals in Brisbane.
“This new training centre will be of enormous benefit to renal patients both in Cairns and those living as far away as the Cape and Torres Strait.
“Haemodialysis in the hospital can take up to six hours per session and has to be done three times a week.
“Training patients to do their own dialysis at home means they will no longer spend their life travelling between home and hospital.
“At home, they can do shorter sessions over more days or undergo dialysis while they sleep.
“That means a better quality of life with people avoiding lengthy visits to hospital, greater independence and the ability for some to return to work.’’
Mr Robertson said home haemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis machines are provided free to patients but remain the property of Queensland Health.
“I want to thank the Cairns Earlville and Cairns Mulgrave Rotary clubs for their public spiritedness in supporting this important health initiative,’’ he said.
“Their generosity will help a lot of people in Far North Queensland for many years to come.”
Cairns Base Hospital Director of Renal Medicine Dr Murty Mantha said the hospital carried out 11,647 dialysis treatments during 2006, which was 10.5 per cent more than the 10,539 treatments carried out in 2005.
“We currently have 20 patients undergoing home haemodialysis and around 42 patients undergoing home peritoneal dialysis.
“Only 12-15 per cent of our current haemodialysis patients do home haemodialysis and we aim to increase this to 30 per cent.
“Approximately 30 per cent of our patients undergoing less intrusive peritoneal dialysis do home dialysis and we aim to increase that rate too.”
Dr Mantha said the development of the home dialysis training centre was part of a steady expansion of renal medicine services at Cairns Base Hospital.
The hospital recently received $400,000 in funding to set up a new Chronic Kidney Disease Team, plus additional funding to appoint a full-time renal access co-ordinator.
The Chronic Kidney Disease Team – including a third renal medicine specialist - will be assembled early next year and will be responsible for developing and delivering a training, education and kidney disease prevention campaign across the Far North.
“Through the efforts of the Chronic Kidney Disease Team, we hope to reach people who are at risk of kidney failure early enough to prevent them reaching end-stage renal failure
“We’re aiming also to target the Indigenous community right across the Far North.’’
Dr Mantha said the choice of dialysis programs depended upon patient-related medical and non-medical factors. Patients can learn to do home peritoneal dialysis in about two weeks, while home haemodialysis requires about 12 weeks of training.
NOTE : Home Dialysis Fact Sheet Attached
MEDIA: Paul Lynch 3234 1190
HOME DIALYSIS FACT SHEET
• A home dialysis training centre provides training for people in the procedures and use of the equipment necessary to dialyse themselves at home, increases their self-sufficiency and avoids their having to visit the hospital several times a week.
• Anyone who expresses a desire to dialyse themselves at home is accepted for training. The choice of dialysis methods – peritoneal dialysis or the more intensive haemodialysis – depends upon patient-related medical and non-medical factors.
• Peritoneal dialysis involves the insertion of a small tube in a patient’s stomach, through which dialysis fluid from a special bag can be flowed into the peritoneal cavity to cleanse the blood through a process called “exchange”. A machine is required to assist the flow between bag and stomach if peritoneal dialysis is to be done overnight.
• Haemodialysis involves filtering a patient’s blood through a machine, drawing it into the machine from an intravenous fistula and returning the filtered blood to the body.
• Home dialysis requires some alterations to the patient’s home plumbing and electrical systems. In the case of plumbing, additional piping and a reverse osmosis machine have to be installed to filter all water used for dialysis which has to be pure and sterile. In the case of electrical supply, back-up generators usually are installed to provide emergency back-up power. Queensland Health meets these costs.
• Once patients have been set up for dialysis at home, they are provided with an emergency contact, should anything go wrong that they cannot fix themselves. They are also visited at regular intervals, usually every three months, so that periodic maintenance can be carried out on the machines.
• Currently, the Cairns Hospital Renal Medicine Department has 20 patients undergoing home haemodialysis and around 42 patients undergoing home peritoneal dialysis. Most are in the Cairns area but some are as far away as the Cape and the Torres Strait.
• Each home haemodialysis machine costs around $18,000, while a home peritoneal dialysis machine costs about $10,000. These machines are provided FREE to patients but remain the property of Queensland Health.
• The cost of supporting home dialysis works out at about $10,000-$20,000 a year less per patient then doing dialysis in the hospital.