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Care Opinion

Unhappy with access to holiday dialysis

Posted By Bit519

"Unhappy with access to holiday dialysis"

About: Renal (Kidney) Medicine & Dialysis

(as a service user),

I am a full-time dialysis patient at Monklands. It's difficult being a dialysis patient, not least when you want to go on holiday. Travel insurance is difficult to obtain for going abroad, so I was delighted to find out about the Holiday Dialysis scheme.

Crosshouse Hospital offer the holiday dialysis scheme, so to allow me to get a holiday, my wife and I bought a static caravan in Ayrshire, so that we could get away for a few days, and still make my dialysis appointments.

I've found that the holiday dialysis scheme is not easy to apply for - too much bureaucracy in my opinion. Up until last year, though, I have been able to attend at Crosshouse, mainly because I have been so flexible in when I have been booking my holidays.

This year, when I was booking my holiday, the renal register said that Crosshouse was still participating in the holiday dialysis scheme, so we tried to book a place. I said that I would be happy to plan my holiday around available dates at Crosshouse, but I was told that there was no availability for me this year. I was told by a member of staff that staffing levels were so poor that there was no room on the scheme. They are still on the renal register as available! Crosshouse told me that they have offered holiday dialysis this year, but that I wouldn't be able to get it. I was told to try again next year.

Ayrshire and Arran is a large area, and covers an area that is popular with holidaymakers. However, I feel that they are advertising a service but when you apply you can't get it. Lots of people come to Ayrshire on holiday - are they being told that to try again next year too? Because of this, my wife and I cannot have a holiday. We can only manage to get away on a Saturday immediately after my dialysis and we have to return home on the Monday for my next session. The point is that people are travelling to Ayrshire and Arran on the understanding that they will be able to get holiday dialysis and it's just not available. 

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Responses

Response from Eunice Goodwin, Patient Feedback Manager for NHS Ayrshire and Arran, Quality Improvement and Governance Team, NHS Ayrshire and Arran 4 years ago
Eunice Goodwin
Patient Feedback Manager for NHS Ayrshire and Arran, Quality Improvement and Governance Team,
NHS Ayrshire and Arran

I respond initially to most of the posts and ensure they are passed to the appropriate team whether they are compliments, observations or grumbles. It is important to make sure all issues are addressed and I try to encourage that to happen for all the posts as required.

Submitted on 28/08/2019 at 08:48
Published on Care Opinion at 08:48

picture of Eunice Goodwin

Dear Bit519,

I can only imagine how disappointed you must be and I am sorry you have been unable to have your holiday here. I can appreciate how restrictive it must be to be dependent on this service.

We are currently looking into this and we will provide an update here as soon as we have completed our investigation.

Thank you for bringing this to our attention and I hope you will be able to get a holiday in your static caravan, here in Ayrshire, soon.

Best wishes,

Eunice

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Response from Eunice Goodwin, Patient Feedback Manager for NHS Ayrshire and Arran, Quality Improvement and Governance Team, NHS Ayrshire and Arran 4 years ago
Eunice Goodwin
Patient Feedback Manager for NHS Ayrshire and Arran, Quality Improvement and Governance Team,
NHS Ayrshire and Arran

I respond initially to most of the posts and ensure they are passed to the appropriate team whether they are compliments, observations or grumbles. It is important to make sure all issues are addressed and I try to encourage that to happen for all the posts as required.

Submitted on 02/09/2019 at 14:20
Published on Care Opinion at 14:20

picture of Eunice Goodwin

Dear Bit519,

I have been asked to post is o behalf of the senior charge nurse of the renal dialysis unit:

"I am sorry that you have been disappointed and unable to book a holiday because we were unable to offer you holiday dialysis. I can appreciate how frustrating this must be for you. I hope in this response that I will be able to reply to each of your concerns.

For clarity, I would like to explain how we allocate our holiday dialysis and this is on the basis that we take holiday patients from other units when we have our patients confirmed to go to other holiday destinations and then we are able to utilise their space.

In order to offer holiday dialysis, we need one of our patients confirmed for other holiday destinations, unfortunately, there must not have been any at that time. As the summer approached, staffing within the renal unit had changed and we were not in a position to take any further holiday patients.

Unfortunately we have now had to contact the SRA and have withdrawn from the holiday scheme until we are in a position to be able to offer this service again to holiday patients.

When we are again able to offer holiday dialysis I would expect your holiday co-ordinator to contact our holiday co-ordinator regularly for updates on available spaces so you can be allocated a dialysis space.

I can assure you that our priority is to the care and attention of the dialysis patients within Ayrshire and Arran and to safe staffing to achieve this aim.

SCN Fiona McFadyen

Renal Dialysis Unit"

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Update posted by Bit519 (a service user)

Eunice, Thank you for your response, I can appreciate the problems you are encountering and yes to withdraw at the moment is for the best as it is unkind to give Dialysis patients the expectation that they may get Holiday Dialysis if visiting Ayrshire and Arran. I am also led to believe that other units South of the Border are also withdrawing at the moment, anyway,thank you for letting me know, all the best

Response from Eunice Goodwin, Patient Feedback Manager for NHS Ayrshire and Arran, Quality Improvement and Governance Team, NHS Ayrshire and Arran 4 years ago
Eunice Goodwin
Patient Feedback Manager for NHS Ayrshire and Arran, Quality Improvement and Governance Team,
NHS Ayrshire and Arran

I respond initially to most of the posts and ensure they are passed to the appropriate team whether they are compliments, observations or grumbles. It is important to make sure all issues are addressed and I try to encourage that to happen for all the posts as required.

Submitted on 05/09/2019 at 09:31
Published on Care Opinion at 09:31

picture of Eunice Goodwin

Dear Bit519,

Thank you, all the best to you too.

Eunice

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