COMPTON, UK 14th January 2009, Shadow Health Minister, Earl Howe visited the Baxter Renal Education Centre (BREC) in Kew today to meet with kidney patients who are learning how to manage their dialysis at home.

Home dialysis offers many lifestyle benefits for patients; they no longer have to visit hospital up to three times a week for their treatment so can continue to work and lead more normal lives. The majority of patients are suitable for and should be offered dialysis at home. In London, 19% of suitable kidney patients (approximately 800) have their therapy at home through either Peritoneal Dialysis (PD) or Home Haemodialysis (HHD). However, there are vast differences in numbers who have access to home renal therapy across the city with only 6% on PD in West London and 29% in the East.

Baxter Renal Business Unit Director, David Whitehouse, said, "With the NHS having to find solutions to ever increasing numbers of patients suffering from kidney disease and needing dialysis, home treatment for those who are suitable can provide an answer. More patients should be offered the choice of home therapy as a viable option for their treatment. As you can see from the statistics above, there are vast differences even within London itself."

"Home treatments offer the patients many benefits, including no more travelling to hospital up to three times a week for their dialysis. There are also financial benefits for the NHS too with peritoneal dialysis being a more cost effective treatment than haemodialysis within a hospital."

BREC is the only facility of its kind in the UK. It is a residential unit designed to teach, educate and promote self care for renal dialysis patients who have chosen home dialysis as their form of treatment. The unit is funded and staffed by Baxter Healthcare and supports about 200 patients every year.

At the unit, patients are trained how to carry out PD. In PD, patients infuse dialysis solution into their peritoneal cavity through a surgically implanted catheter. The solution draws toxins, waste and excess fluid from the bloodstream across the peritoneal membrane into the solution which is then drained from the abdomen and discarded. There are two types of PD therapy: Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis (CAPD), in which patients manually infuse fresh PD solution and discard the used solution several times a day; and Automated Peritoneal Dialysis (APD), in which patients use a machine that automatically performs solution exchanges, usually overnight while the patient sleeps.

Since Baxter opened the centre in London in 1991, approximately 3000 patients have been trained on their chosen therapy. Nursing staff there teach five patients per week who come in on a Monday and stay at the centre until Thursday learning how to perform their dialysis safely. It is designed as a "home from home" with no evidence of clinical equipment thus enabling an easy transition from training centre to a patient’s own home.