Home Dialysis Patients Face Postcode Lottery of Care, New Report Finds

ALCESTER, England -- QUANTA Dialysis Technologies Ltd (“QUANTA” or the “Company”), a medical technology company committed to making kidney care more accessible with its SC+ haemodialysis system, has released a new report that suggests people with kidney failure who wish to do home dialysis face unequal access across the UK. The Bridging the Gap report finds that failure to offer such treatment is increasing NHS costs and reducing quality of care for patients .

A significant proportion of the 30,000 UK people currently living with kidney failure are not offered the choice of dialysing at home even if they are clinically suitable. This means they must unnecessarily travel in-centre (to a hospital or clinic) for treatment, which can lead to poorer clinical outcomes.  In some areas more than one in three patients (37%) are offered home dialysis - but in others this is just one in 25 (4%).

The Bridging the Gap report points to research showing that the NHS spends in excess of £50 million a year on transport getting kidney patients to and from their dialysis centre three times every week. More than 3.3 million such journeys are carried out each year.[2] On the contrary, studies have found that moving a patient to home haemodialysis can provide equal or better care for between £4,000 and £6,000 less per patient a year - and bring improved physical and psychological wellbeing.[3] However, only 33 out of 52 renal treatment centres in England are meeting the NHS’s target of getting 20% of patients to dialyse at home[4].

The Bridging the Gap report makes five landmark recommendations on how the NHS can support more people who are clinically suitable to do home dialysis, offering improved clinical outcomes, quality of life and reducing costs. These include:

• Information provided to patients considering, or who are suitable, for home dialysis should be standardised and include details on practical and financial support available.
• The Government should ensure that educational resources are also provided to local authorities, enabling them to respond appropriately to the needs of people in their area who want to dialyse at home.
• Suitable peer support or home dialysis patient mentors should be offered at all stages of the decision-making process.
• All dialysis centre staff?should?receive support and up-to-date training?to build their home dialysis knowledge to have positive discussions with patients.
• A review of the dialysis reimbursement tariff should take place to ensure it incentivises home dialysis carried out at higher frequency.

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