Mick Bates highlights plight of kidney patients in Powys

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 26th Sep 2007

As the Kidney Foundation Wales launch their four month campaign to improve Kidney services in Wales, Montgomeryshire AM Mick Bates calls on the Assembly Government to 'get their act together' as figures show Wales lags far behind England on kidney treatment.

Highlighting the lack of provision for kidney treatment in Powys, Mick comments on the prospect that patients in Powys may be forced to travel as far as the West Midlands for treatment:

"Patients are currently travelling from Powys to dialysis units in Shrewsbury and Wrexham but now these units are facing serious capacity issues. Patients are being threatened with a move to the unit at Walsall - this is just not good enough.

"The Assembly Government needs a strong plan to support kidney treatment in Wales to resolve these local capacity and travel issues - we need an urgent plan of action for the dialysis unit proposed for Welshpool hospital as well as firm plans for further units across the country."

"The Renal National Service Framework critically lacks an action plan and a measurable timetable for action. A 2006 study undertaken by researchers from Bristol and Cardiff showed that 20% of the population lived more than 30 minutes from a dialysis unit and in large parts of Powys and Pembrokeshire the drive time is over 60 minutes.

"There are serious concerns about poor accountability for dialysis units and the number of kidney transplants remains totally inadequate. I fully support campaigns by both the BMA and Kidney Foundation Wales to increase the number of donors.

"This really is a life or death issue."

End/ Diwedd

Notes:

The Kidney Wales Foundation have presented a petition which requests that the National Assembly for Wales works with Kidney Wales Foundation and other stakeholders to set and achieve a target of doubling kidney donors in Wales by the end of this National Assembly in 2011. The petition also requests that the Assembly matches pound for pound the funding provided by Kidney Foundation Wales towards their campaign.

The Petition is PET(3)02-07 (p4): 20 September 2007 which is awaiting a further evidence session.

White, P., James, V., Ansell, D., Lodhi, V., & Donovan K.L. (2006) Equity of access to dialysis facilities in Wales, Q J Med 99: 445-452