To: National Kidney Federation
Date: 23rd September 2002
Mr. Tim Statham
Chief Executive
National Kidney Federation
6 Stanley Street
Worksop
Notts
S81 7HX
Dear Tim,
The Welsh Kidney Patients Association wishes to draw the attention of the NKF’s Annual Patients’ Conference to recent developments affecting Paediatric nephrology provision in Wales.
The issuing of guidelines by the Royal Colleges of Paediatricians relating to annual patient workloads necessary to maintain appropriate levels of skill, approving Hospital Trusts in making permanent Consultant appointments, and ensuring the accreditation of such consultants; together with the Association of Paediatric Nephrologists’ recommendations that a catchment population of 3 million is necessary to sustain a specialist Tertiary Centre, have precipitated significant changes being recommended by the Specialised Health Services Commission for Wales (SHSCW), to the service in South Wales.
The Commission in its review of existing services is proposing the transfer of acute paediatric renal inpatient care and transplantation from the University Hospital of Wales, to Bristol Childrens’ Hospital in order that the requirements of the population base, the workloads of consultants, the accreditation of consultants and annual audit requirements are met by the combined centres.
These recommendations which are currently out for consultation, will, if approved by the National Assembly for Wales, present major difficulties to those families with children in need of Tertiary inpatient care, and living in parts of Wales where travelling distance and time will be well above any recommendation which may be made in the National Service Framework for Children which the National Assembly is also introducing.
In addition, there is at present, no recognised pathway for such families to receive financial assistance to meet travelling and accommodation costs while their child is at Bristol. The Association in its response to the SHSCW proposals has surveyed over 50 parents with children with renal problems regarding their views, and has urged the Commission to ensure that the existing Tertiary Paediatric Nephrology Service in Wales is strengthened and built upon, thereby ensuring that as much as is possible of the service is retained in Wales.
The WKPA would be grateful for the views of Conference in relation to the situation outlined above, since the criteria being used will no doubt apply to other Tertiary Paediatric Nephrology Centres in England, and might well result in some centres closing completely. Your co-operation in this matter would be much appreciated.
Yours sincerely,
Dr John Marsden (Chairman)
Copies to:
Mr John Reever WKPA Representative on the NKF
Mr Neil Harvey WKPA Hon. Secretary
Mrs Gloria Owens WKPA Management Committee member.
Note: Please send or email any responses to the above letter to the NKF Worksop Office (details below). The NKF would like to emphasise that views expressed in letters are those of the patients/others that wrote them, and are not the views of the NKF.
The National Kidney Federation cannot accept responsibility for the views expressed by others in these letters pages.
Page created: 23 September 2002
Last updated: 8 February 2008
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