More patients with kidney failure can now get to a lifeline dialysis service at Macclesfield Hospital – saving them hundreds of miles of travel.
The new renal unit provides 10 machines for patients to use the blood cleansing treatment more easily, rather than travelling to Manchester for care.
One patient Leonie Scott, 50, says the purpose-built unit has changed her life.
Mum of two Leonie had dialysis for seven years at home after being diagnosed with Lupus, but earlier this year her ‘self-treatment’ stopped working and she had to attend a hospital for care.
She started travelling to Manchester Royal Infirmary, driving herself a total of 108 miles to get there and back three times a week and sometimes having to wait if priority patients were booked in.
When she heard about the new Macclesfield unit she signed up straight away and now travels less than a mile from her home on Westminster Road to dialyse.
She says she now has more time with her daughter who is also sick and living at home. On a visit to the new unit Leonie said: "I can’t believe the difference it’s made to my life having this service so close.
"The difference has been in the travelling, I was driving myself to Manchester and sometimes by the time I got home I was so tired I didn't want to eat and just wanted to sleep, which is not good with a sick daughter at home. The worst thing about this disease is the tiredness, you are always tired, so having all that extra travel was very stressful. They make me feel so welcome here. The facilities are excellent."
The new unit was purpose-built and replaces a smaller unit situated within the hospital. The unit moved temporarily to a mobile unit while the work, funded by dialysis experts Fresenius Medical Care Renal Services, was underway.
Patients are cared for by consultants from Central Manchester Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and attend three times a week. Staff can treat more patients than before, with 10 machines rather than the six treating 72 people a week.
n East Cheshire NHS Trust has appointed businesswoman Lynn McGill for a four-year term, responsible for Macclesfield, Knutsford and Congleton hospitals. She replaces Kathy Cowell who left the job after 10 years and is now chairman of the Central and Eastern Cheshire PCT. She will be paid £20,896 a year.
