Holiday Dialysis

[NKFCEO]

Please discuss whether dialysis patients are finding greater opportunities to Dialyse away from their base unit, or finding that the opportunities to do so are less, since the introduction of NHS tariff payments to hospitals. Your views will inform the NKF in their campaigning for Kidney patients.

[mrspick]

I understand the BKPA have funded a scheme in association with Freedom Travel to enable Haemo dialysis patients the oppertunity to access a data base which holds details of available holiday dialysis slots throughout the UK. Has any one used this? What was your opinion of it?

[mikeb]

Not used this yet but will take a look. We have booked 3 sessions of holiday dialysis at The Mermaid Centre in Wells-next-the Sea in August this year and there was no problems.

[sky27]

Holiday dialysis is very difficut to obtain in Cornwall.

Some hospitals are resticting the amount of away from base dialysis sessions limiting patients to a set amount of money

[NKFADVOCACYKC in reply to sky27]

Plymouth has some scope for holiday dialysis. I will chase Cornwall on this - there are three units - Truro, Penzance and Bodmin.

[mikeb]

We've had one holiday in Torremolinos in March this year with 3 dilaysis sessions at a local Diaverum clinic and have also booked another single session in Seville (also Diaverum) for a short holiday in October. There have been absolutely no issues with these.

[shriranjan]

Last year had four dialysis sessions at Penzance and three in a private unit in London. There was a slight problem in the payment to the private unit, eventually sorted out in July this year. Also had three sessions in Swansea which I arranged myself. (The other two had been arranged by my hospital.) All paid for in the end by the health authority.

This year I arranged 6 sessions at Kendal, but 10 days before the holiday was due to start, we were informed that Kendal could't perform dialysis via a femoral line. In the end after frantic phone calls we're able to dialyse at the Lakeland Dialysis Centre at Cockermouth despite this being a private unit and the dialysis coordinator at our hospital saying it couldn't be done. The people at Lakeland contacted our hosptal and it was sorted out in a few hours.

[rastaman]

Hi

I have had two holidays abroad (Spain) and had no problems regarding payment, once the EHIC card was accepted.

The Liverpool hospital has a hospital coordinator (found out this year in Spain 2015 July) however nothing like that exist at NWPark why???

not enough paitents are taking up this why - is it because

A) hospital staff are not helpful

B) not enough knowledge regarding EHIC card

C) no coordinator or not enough coordinator eat all hospitals

what can be done to assist paitents

Ray