Renal & Transplantation (Wessex Kidney Centre)

The Wessex Kidney Centre manages patients with all Nephrological illnesses including acute,chronic, and end stage renal failure in patients of age 16 years upwards. All modalities of Renal Replacement Therapy (RRT) are available – haemodialysis (HD), haemodia filtration (HDF), peritoneal dialysis (PD), automated peritoneal dialysis (APD) and Renal Transplantation.

A comprehensive range of investigative procedures for all renal diseases is provided. The transplantation service provides an organ retrieval service, which has strong links with intensive care units and multi-organ transplant centres nation-wide.

Outpatients

The WKC has its own integral out-patient department and the facility to see programme patients as emergencies during the day. If you have provided us your mobile number a text reminder is sent to you before your appointment date. If you want to withdraw from this service, please let reception know.

When you arrive for your appointment, please let reception know so they can record your attendance. Also if there are any changes in your contact details please let reception know so your record can be updated on our systems.

Inpatient Facilities

Inpatient Beds

There are three dedicated Inpatient wards: G6, G7 and G9. The current bed complement is 45-49, with an additional 6 beds on the Renal Day Ward.

Visiting Hours

Access to the Hospital is 24 hours a day / 7 day’s a week, however, visiting hours in Renal wards are generally  2pm to 8pm.

Quiet room

There is a quiet room for visitors that can be accessed during visiting hours.

Peritoneal Dialysis

The Peritoneal Dialysis (PD) Team is based in Fareham Community Hospital within the Renal Unit. The PD department is open Monday to Friday from 7.30am to 5pm and there is a PD Nurse on call from 8am to 8pm on Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays.

Our aim is to encourage our patients to be independent and manage their own dialysis at home with the support of the team. In order to facilitate this, we provide home based training and patient follow up. We also run an out-patient based treatment facility.

There are two main types of PD, which can generally be adapted to fit around your lifestyle. We select the therapy type and system according to the patient’s needs and offer both surgical and medical insertion of PD catheter. We have 3 Consultant Nephrologists with a specialist interest in PD, who run clinics for our patients on 6 different sites across the region.

We work very closely with the other departments within the Wessex Kidney Centre and believe that all renal patients should be on the right therapy, in the right place, at the right time.

The Peritoneal Dialysis Team at the Wessex Kidney Centre is both nationally and internationally recognised for their expertise in PD and the quality of the care that they deliver to their patients.

Home Dialysis

The Wessex Kidney Centre set about establishing a new Home Haemodialysis (HHD) programme in 2009 in response to the NICE recommendations and patient advocacy. Prior to this there had been no HHD programme since 1999. The unit has now established a large and rapidly growing HHD programme including a number of patients on nocturnal therapy. Due to the success of our programme the HHD team are regularly invited to other units and conferences to share our experience.

The programme is run by Dr Natalie Borman (the Consultant lead), Dr Nick Sangala, Sister Nikki Pacy and 3 additional nurses.

The team has a training facility based at Fareham Community Hospital and have exceeded the NICE recommendations that 10% of all HD patients should be dialysing at home. The team are also active in the Advanced Kidney Care clinic to ensure that HHD is considered as an option for all.

The team works hard to promote HHD and have participated in a number of media events including television, radio and newspaper articles to raise awareness of HHD for dialysis patients and the general public. A number of awareness days for staff and patients have also taken place, with a plan to continue providing these across the region.

The team provides monthly reviews for all patients in their home in addition to specialist clinics and the team are contactable 6 days a week for patient quires.

Research is a key part of our programme with several studies planned for the near future.
WKC has the largest NxStage HHD programme in the world, with Dr Borman and Sister Pacy leading the education and advisory groups in Europe.

We are committed to providing a programme which adapts to the needs of our patients and have successfully overcome many perceived barriers to make the programme that success that it is today.

Renal Transplantation

The Transplant team is led by Mr Rupesh Sutaria (Clinical Director, Transplantation). The service provides acute and chronic transplantation services for the region, including all work up,surgical, nephrological and nursing care, dedicated anaesthetic staff, transplant coordinators (living donor, recipient and post-transplant), surgery and immediate, middle- and longer-term post-transplant management for donors and recipients.

Hand-assisted laparoscopic nephrectomy is the donor operation of choice although it is likely that we will offer robot assisted surgery to selected patients in the future.

There are a good number of local DCD (Donation after Cardiac Death) donations and a dynamic and increasing living donor programme, with one of the highest number of non-directed altruistic donations in the country. The local commissioners favour transplantation, particularly pre-emptive (where patient has not started dialysis yet).

Four Nephrologists provide the immediate peri- and post-transplant care with the transplant surgeons and specialist nursing team.

Conservative Care

• For a variety of reasons, sometimes patients are unable, or choose not to receive dialysis or a transplant when their kidneys fail. There is much that can be done these days to improve symptoms of kidney disease for those patients not on specific renal replacement therapy.

Conservative care focuses on a patient’s quality of life, rather than initiating medical interventions which may not be appropriate in some cases. This approach involves treating anaemia with erythropoietin, dietary changes and sometimes medication to control symptoms.This happens alongside discussions with the patient regarding their wishes for their healthcare for the future.

Haemodialysis

The WKC has an on-site haemodialysis centre with 25 stations at Queen Alexandra Hospital. In addition, the WKC has eight satellite dialysis units.

Five are NHS run and staffed:

• Milford-on-Sea, New Forest (7)
• Bognor Regis (14 stations)
• Totton in Southampton (9)
• Isle of Wight (10)
• Fareham Dialysis (25)

The remainder are privately run and subcontracted;

• Basingstoke (24) with BBraun
• Chandlers Ford, Southampton (18) with Fresenius

• Havant, Portsmouth (25) with Diaverium

• Salisbury (11) with Diaverium 

The current five-year development plan with commissioning partners delivered full outpatient haemodialysis capacity in 2013. Further expansion is being planned with the Trust and external

consultation. Renal Consultants hold regular dialysis clinics within the units. Peritoneal dialysis, home haemodialysis and transplant patients beyond the first three months are all seen as close to home as possible. At least 60% of outpatient activity occurs away from the Portsmouth hub.

Dr Katey Flowers leads the Haemodialysis sub group within the WKC.