Renal services

Location

Samuel Johnson Community Hospital
Trent Valley Road
Lichfield
WS13 6EF

Telephone: 01283 566 333

The renal unit provides satellite haemodialysis treatment an an outpatient facility. There is capacity to dialyse 42 patients per week. It is staffed by highly experienced nurses who are supported by clinical support workers, a consultant nephrologist, renal technicians and a renal dietician.

Sessions

Monday, Wednesday and Friday: 8am - 12am (three sessions daily).

Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday: 8am - 8pm (two sessions daily).

Sessions last between three-and-a-half to four-and-a-half hours. Patients attend the unit for treatment three times a week.

Holiday dialysis patients are accepted for dialysis treatment when referred by their haemodialysis unit.

How to obtain an appointment

Patients with chronic kidney disease are referred by their GP, and also by regional dialysis units for local patients who are receiving treatment in Birmingham, Derby and Coventry.

Location

Renal Unit
Royal Derby Hospital
Level 4 
Uttoxeter Road
Derby
DE22 8NE

Nearest car park: 1, 2 and 8
Nearest entrance: Main entrance or entrance 9

Telephone: 01332 788 259

Renal services at Royal Derby Hospital include a 24-bedded inpatient area (including a four-bedded renal high dependency area and four-bedded medical high dependency area), and a 56 station chronic haemodialysis unit.

Outpatient services

The renal unit has a dedicated outpatient area with services that include:

• Treatment rooms where intravenous iron is administered
• Clinics including low clearance, nephrology, transplant, haemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis, home haemodialysis and anaemia
• Experienced staff including dieticians, dialysis nurses, anaemia nurses, pharmacists, diabetologists and vascular consultants

Inpatient services

The inpatient area will have a higher skill mix related to acuity. The ward area has a procedure room, allowing for the placement of temporary lines and renal biopsies. Dedicated ultrasound equipment is based within this area. The High Dependency Unit is monitored, with the ability to deliver renal replacement therapy and plasma exchange.

Transplant services

Since 2008, the team at the Royal has been providing the long-term follow up care for patients who have undergone a kidney transplant operation. Transplant patients typically come back to the Derby Transplant service three-months post-transplant.

We currently have more than 260 transplant patients under our follow up.  We run one-two transplant clinics daily between Monday and Friday, with support from a dedicated Pharmacist in a selection of these clinics. Telephone and drop-in clinics are also available, as well as a dedicated annual skin surveillance clinic.

Peritoneal dialysis

Peritoneal dialysis (PD) is another form of renal replacement therapy and can be easily performed by patients at home.

PD takes place 24 hours a day and your diet and fluid allowance can be more relaxed than with haemodialysis. PD is a home-based treatment and visits to the hospital are about every 12 - 14 weeks. In addition, dedicated support is also available whenever needed.

PD supplies can be delivered to any address in the UK and many overseas countries, so enables you to be independent by managing your own treatment. In Derby, the kidney doctors place PD catheter medically under local anaesthetics, avoiding general anaesthesia. There are five specialist nurses who provide dedicated support to around 75 - 80 peritoneal dialysis patients. Support is available via telephone day or night should you need any advice. 

Recognised nationally for our passion to deliver high quality compassionate care, we are a 55 bedded purpose-built dialysis unit, providing chronic haemodialysis and acute treatments including haemo-filtration and plasma exchange.

We have a team of enthusiastic nursing, and a technical team supported by the medical, dietetic and pharmaceutical and kidney care teams.

We are open Monday to Saturday and provide overnight and Sunday on-call cover.

Home dialysis gives you the freedom to do dialysis when you want to. It offers you the chance to dialyse more frequently and feel better as you remove the two day break. You have more freedom with your diet and fluid and in some cases a reduction in medications.    

Anyone who is stable on treatment can do home dialysis, as long as you have space for the dialysis machine, and the machine can be close to water and drainage. In some cases having a carer or helper to support you is useful, but not necessary.    

Home dialysis has proved to improve better blood pressure management which means less need for blood pressure medications, avoidance of intradialytic hypotension  (e.g. low blood pressure during dialysis), more energy and feeling less washed-out after treatment. It shows decreased prevalence of sleep apnoea or improvement in severe cases of sleep apnoea, and there are less dietary and fluid restrictions.

We run a multi-professional clinic specifically for people who have failing kidney function. People are normally referred into this clinic when their kidney doctor feels they are around 18 months to 2 years away from needing support with their kidney function in the form of a kidney transplant, dialysis or more conservative measures.

We run clinics in both the Royal Derby Hospital (RDH) and the Samuel Johnson Community Hospital (SJCH). The team consists of kidney care nurses, specialist dieticians, anaemia specialists and kidney doctors to support you through your decisions.

Below is a link to a series of videos containing information that might be useful to you if you or a relative are referred to the Low Clearance Clinic at RDH or SJCH. We encourage you and your family to view these and make notes of any questions that you might have so we can discuss these at your clinic appointment. You may find that you don’t want to view them all initially but may want to come back to some again in the future.
 

View all our Renal Unit information videos (opens in new window) >