Queen Alexandra Hospital team 'change' Isle of Wight patient's life with home dialysis

Care home resident Ross Archer, who also lives with bipolar disorder, was having to visit QA Hospital in Cosham three times a week for dialysis treatment after developing kidney failure in 2017.

Spending so much time at hospital was having a negative impact on 64-year-old Ross, who would find it very distressing and confusing, often resulting in him refusing treatment.

But now staff of Beaufort House in Sandown have seen a ‘huge difference’ in Ross since starting up home haemodialysis, following training provided by the Wessex Kidney Centre at QA.

The kidney centre team travelled to the home over a two-week period to teach staff how to give dialysis.

Consultant nephrologist Dr Natalie Borman said: ‘Despite the large numbers of patients trained to do their own dialysis at home, this was a first for the home dialysis team. They had never before trained a team of individuals in a care home to dialyse a patient but their commitment to providing this life-saving treatment has changed Ross’ life.

‘I am extremely proud of the team here at QA. We hope that we can work with other care teams to support patients like Ross.’

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Three care home staff are now fully trained and a fourth soon to follow. Being able to provide the service means that Ross no longer needs to visit hospital so often.

Toni Smith, Ross' keyworker and lead of home dialysis within the home, said: ‘I have never done anything like this before, it was a whole new experience, but I wanted to do this for Ross.

‘Being able to offer Ross home dialysis has changed his life drastically. I have seen a huge difference in him, he is a lot happier with more energy and mobility. He really seems to be enjoying life now and I can’t thank the Wessex Kidney Centre enough for providing this training.’

Hemodialysis is a procedure where a dialysis machine and a special filter are used to clean your blood if your kidneys no longer remove enough wastes and fluid from your blood.

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