When my transplanted kidney failed and once again I commenced dialysis, I moved to Hampshire. I became the responsibility of Southampton Health Authority. They would only finance two sessions of haemodialysis for me a week. Just three miles west in Dorset I would have been offered my essential three sessions a week. A few phone calls confirmed my own suspicions - without the full three sessions of dialysis, my still functioning transplanted pancreas would certainly fail. Allowing my transplanted pancreas to fail would cost the health authority more than investing in one session of dialysis a week.

The health authority renal funding department and the diabetes department ran separate budgets, and the two departments did not communicate. I was refused my third session of dialysis. I had no choice but to go cap in hand, begging for my third dialysis session. My consultant in Cornwall, John Barnes donated a session to me last thing on a Friday night. So each week I drove 400 mile round trips to dialyse. But I was not prepared to sacrifice my precious transplant to petty red tape.

This proved to be a turning point in many ways for me. I realised that I had to start taking responsibility for my own future. We, you and I must not lose track of what is happening to our renal service. What we know is there is insufficient funding being ploughed into renal services to meet the predicted take on of ESRF patients over the next 10 years. You have to ask yourself, if sufficient money is not ploughed into renal services over the next 10 years, who has the most to lose? The politicians, or, us?

Please note, this page is a summary of the full conference speech (click here for the full transcript).

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