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12 RENAL DIALYSIS
Under Section 28 of the National Health Service Act, the
local authority can adapt a room in a private house to
enable a Home Dialysis unit to be installed. The unit
enables those persons who have inadequate kidney
function to clear impurities from the blood-stream, and to
live a normal life. The alternative is to spend many hours
attached to a machine in hospital, and home dialysis is
much preferred by patients. Adaptation includes rendering
walls and floors impervious to water, installing power
points, plumbing-in hot and cold water supply, and providing
drainage, sink unit, and storage space. The Council is
authorised to recover from the patient the whole or part of
the cost according to means revealed by an assessment
procedure. The hospital authorities install and service the
equipment, which is provided on loan.
I am glad to report that three machines have been withdrawn
from Ealing patients following successful transplant
operations, and five are in current use, two of which were
installed during the year.