Brighton and Hove health chiefs have been given funding of £500,000 towards the cost of building a satellite kidney dialysis unit.
The grant came from the British Kidney Patient Association and will help fund a unit in Eastbourne, relieving pressure on capacity at the Sussex Kidney Unit in Brighton.
Duncan Selbie, chief executive of Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust, was delighted with the news.
Mr Selbie said that it would save East Sussex patients some of the time and money that they currently spent on travelling to Brighton for treatment.
He added: “This is a real coup for renal services manager Tim Eakin and the team and one that will make a positive difference to our patients on dialysis.”
At a time when all hospital services are being increasingly centralised, forcing very ill and disabled people to travel huge distances as best they can or do without – for any and all kinds of illnesses – it is at least heartening to see recognition of the need to de-centralise access to dialysis.
Why is this not properly recognised by health authorities and GP’s as need for other illnesses – like orthopaedics (travel is forced from Brighton to Haywards Heath), neurosurgery (Haywards Heath)and for people all over Sussex, travel is forced to Brighton when at their most vulnerable.
It is one of the greatest unreported and unrecognised health cruelty scandals of our time.
I’ve had to do without myself for these very reasons – couldn’t access Haywards Heath under my own steam. Health rationing almost certainly is my conclusion.