Anger over dialysis unit 'delay'

The project team has chosen what equipment is going in it but there is just delay after delay Ken Bisnath

Kidney patients in west Wales are angry at what they claim are delays over a new dialysis centre for the region.

Patients voiced concerns in March about overcrowding and a lack of facilities at the current unit in Carmarthen.

They claim little has been done since they were told a new £1.5m centre would open at West Wales General Hospital.

But Health Commission Wales (HCW) said it was now tendering for the building work and the centre was expected to be completed within 12 months.

The current unit covers Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire but, because it is full, some patients have to travel to Swansea instead.

Doctors have seen some patients in a corridor due to a lack of space in the portable building in the hospital grounds.

Former nurse and dialysis patient Ken Bisnath said: "The situation is getting worse."

Mr Bisnath is also a patient representative on a project board established to oversee the new centre.

He added: "We first saw [former Welsh Health Minister] Jane Hutt last October and it was supposed to be ready this year. So far it's only at the planning stage.

"They keep putting it off and, as far as I know, they have not yet got planning permission for it.

"The project team has chosen what equipment is going in it but there is just delay after delay."

Completion date

HCW, which commissions dialysis services in Wales, had said previously a larger centre was needed and would open in 2006 at the latest.

The Welsh Assembly Government had committed £1.5m for the project.

A HCW spokesman said a project board made up of patients and health professionals had met regularly since July.

"The design team has advised the project board on matters relating to the development of planning, construction and tender specifications and the new unit is expected to be completed by September 2006," he added.

"The tender to identify a construction company to undertake the building of the facilities is currently underway.

"In the meantime, HCW is working with the service provider to continue to provide services at the current unit."