At Health Questions in the Scottish Parliament today, 30th April, the plight of dialysis patients in Argyll was brought to the attention of the chamber.
Folk in Argyll in need of dialysis face frequent and lengthy journeys to hospitals elsewhere as there is no dialysis unit in Argyll & Bute.
Healthcare Improvement Scotland previously set a target that NHS Boards should provide hospital dialysis within 30 minutes of all patients’ homes, allowing for the constraints of population, density and geography. However as Jamie McGrigor set out at Health Question Time today, number of kidney dialysis patients in the Campbeltown area are having to make journeys three times a week to the Vale of Leven Hospital. This is a distance of 116 miles, with a journey time of 2 hours 40 minutes each way – for dialysis treatment.
The Public Health Minister, Michael Matheson, said he appreciated the concerns of dialysis patients living in more remote areas and understood NHS Highland was in dialogue with the patients involved to seek to address some of their anxieties. He confirmed that NHS Highland had previously looked at the issue of providing a low level dialysis unit in Argyll & Bute some time ago and said that the board will revisit the issue in 2015/16. And that’s action? That’s the long grass.
Commenting after Health Questions, Highlands and Islands MSP, Jamie McGrigor, who has previously taken up the issue in writing with both NHS Highland and the Health Secretary Alex Neil, said: ‘I have a great deal of sympathy with my Argyll & Bute constituents who have to make these extremely long journeys up to three times a week for dialysis – which can be exhausting and stressful.
‘I would encourage patients to continue to make representations to NHS Highland on this important matter and I will continue to work with my colleague Councillor Donald Kelly to speak up in support wherever possible. I hope that NHS Highland can look again at providing a satellite dialysis unit within Argyll as quickly as possible.’
Today the Campbeltown dialysis patients in Argyll are required to make a journey five times the journey time from home set as the target for NHS boards by Health Improvement Scotland.
