Peter Hunt has been coming for kidney dialysis at St Vincent’s Hospital days times a week for the past four years. He’s one of the 17 regular patients who is benefiting from the 12 new renal dialysis machines and chairs just installed at the hospital as part of an upgrade to the Renal Dialysis Unit.

Peter Hunt in St Vincent's Hospital Renal Dialysis Unit.



Christmas in hospital

Because it’s Christmas time, Peter wears his elf hat, and sits in a special dialysis chair in the unit for four hours while he is hooked up to a dialysis machine which cleans and filters his blood.

“It gets me out of the house and is not painful at all,” he laughed.

Before he started dialysis, Peter experienced symptoms of a “terrible itch” in his legs.

“I think it was brought about by my Type 2 diabetes,” he said. “I was on tablets before I started dialysis which didn’t do much good.

“The toxins that cause the itch and being hit by a truck feeling disappeared once I started dialysis and my blood was cleaned.

After he has dialysis, Peter has a rest at home and he said his health is markedly improved.

Peter and the other patients, are are cheered by the friendly staff, in a comfortable ward which has been beautifully decorated for Christmas. In fact, the renal dialysis unit won the highly competitive ‘best decorated ward’ competition at the hospital.

Read more about it: Decorations competition brings Christmas spirit to St Vincent's Hospital wards

Inside the Renal Dialysis Unit.

Servicing the community

Renal Dialysis Unit clinical nurse specialist Jacquie Mallaby said the ward becomes like a second home to the regular patients in the ward.

“The staff get to know them well and become friends,” she said. “We also service the wider community for people who come here on holidays or come to visit relatives, have

private health insurance and need dialysis.

“It can be a restrictive life for people needing dialysis and it’s good they can get away and have a break.”

Jacquie said there are three nephrologists (doctors who look after kidneys) in Lismore and one of them, Dr James, is based at St Vincent’s.

Statistics

Currently more than 1.5 million Australians are living with early signs of kidney diseases, according to Kidney Health Australia.

On the North Coast of NSW, nearly 5000 men and 4000 women are hospitalised every year for chronic kidney disease.

St Vincent's Hospital Renal Dialysis Unit staff and hospital management staff.

New machines and chairs

Jacquie said the 12 new renal dialysis machines are replacing the older ones which have reached the end of their life span. There’s also a new reverse osmosis machine, which is responsible for cleaning the water used in the dialysis machines during the blood cleaning process.

“The machines mimic the function of our actual kidneys,” Jacquie said. “Our kidneys are responsible for filtering the blood, maintaining blood pressure and acid base balance in the body.

“Once the kidneys have failed, they excrete wastes of metabolism and when they build up cause itching, nausea, and patients don’t want to eat.

“When someone is getting close to needing dialysis they are feeling pretty crappy and they start feeling better and their appetite and sleep improves when we start cleaning their blood."

Increasing capacity

St Vincent’s Hospital chief executive Steve Briley said buying the new machines meant there was capacity to increase the numbers patients and staff.

“We are seeing an increase in the number of patients using the hospital’s renal service and we are now in a position to better service them,” he said.

“We have ten dialysis chairs now, but we bought 12 to increase the number available,” he said. “At the moment we only have staff on one shift a day, but we would like to increase it to two.

“It also means quicker treatment, as having a spare helps when each machine is taken offline after a treatment and put into a cleaning mode to prepare it for the next patient.

“Getting these new machines gives us another ten years of life with the machines – and we can continue to provide this important service.

“We see ourselves complementing patients in the public system receiving treatment at Lismore Base Hospital and having the most modern medical equipment available is great news for our medical teams and our patients.”