8:32am Friday 19th February 2010
By Gavin Havery
PLANS to give patients lifesaving treatment at home instead of in hospitals were outlined by the Health Secretary yesterday.
Andy Burnham announced measures to shape NHS services around individual patients during a tour of the Freeman Hospital, in Newcastle.
He said the distribution of renal dialysis in the community will mean patients can benefit from more convenient services and be more efficient.
Mr Burnham said: “The time has come for the NHS to make a decisive shift in providing more care out of hospitals and in the patient’s community and home.
“For too long, services have been organised to fit the convenience of the system.
“A great NHS will put the convenience of the patient first, and move services towards them where it is safe to do so. But care in the home can also achieve better results and save money.”
About 7,000 patients across the country could benefit from home dialysis, cutting out the need for regular long visits to hospital and allowing patients to lead more normal lives.
Providing haemodialysis at home means that patients can tailor their dialysis sessions around their lifestyle, which can lead to benefits such as better blood pressure control, less reliance on medication, patients being able to lead a more normal life and spending less time away from their family, fewer admissions to hospital and greater freedom from dietary restrictions.
John Wilkinson, 61, has to make a 40-minute round trip from Blyth, in Northumberland, to Newcastle, three times a week for dialysis treatment.
He said: “I think it is a grand idea, but it is a bit complicated though, because I know I am in safe hands at the hospital and the equipment takes up a lot of room.
“There is also hygiene to think of, but it is stressful and tiring having to come here three times week.”
Paul Stephenson, a spokesman for the Conservative Party, said the Tories were in favour of the idea, but warned that Labour had been promising home care for years.
He said: “Like so many of their recent announcements, they have said nothing about how they will fund the initial set-up costs of this programme.”
Liberal Democrat health spokesman Norman Lamb said there was a danger Mr Burnham’s announcement was nothing more than “empty rhetoric”.
He said: “The Liberal Democrats are totally supportive of the idea of providing better support at home, but this Government has been spectacularly unsuccessful at getting investment into these services and it begs the question of how they are going to change this. We need reform of the way money is spent in the NHS to guarantee that this investment is effective.”
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