Anwar Hussein from Newport with Cabinet Secretary for Health, Well-being and Sport, Vaughan Gething at the opening of the new renal unit in Newport
The second in of a number of new improved local centres for dialysis patients across South Wales has been launched.
Cabinet Secretary Vaughan Gething has officially opened the new facility on Cleppa Park in Newport. It will be followed by another new centre in Pontypool during the next few months.
The new centres will mean improved facilities for patients, providing improved care closer to home and a better nurse to patient ratio. The new Newport Dialysis Unit replaces the unit previously based at St. Woolos Hospital.
Around 500 people are currently using the service provided by Cardiff and Vale University Health Board.
Mark Jones, Directorate Manager for Nephrology and Transplant at the Health Board, said the service had previously been provided in areas that were not ideal for patients.
He said: “These new facilities have been designed with patients and our other partners and are a big improvement on what we’ve been able to provide in the past.
“As well as improving the environment for patients this work also means we can provide care to them closer to home.
“This approach is also in line with Shaping Our Future Wellbeing, our 10 year strategy, which aims provide care closer to home wherever possible.”
Dr Kieron Donovan, Consultant Nephrologist at Cardiff and Vale, said the new centre was a boost for patients and staff.
He said: “The new unit offers more patients better access to modern facilities.
The standout feature is the space and the accommodation. We have more nurses per patient. The transformation is amazing.”
The centre is run and staffed by company BBraun on behalf of the health board.
Mark said: “We are very excited to be working in close collaboration with BBraun Avitum who to date have successfully recruited significant number of new nursing staff to join the team and provided refreshments for patients at all of their units which is something that is something that patients have told us is something that is very important to them.
“We could not have achieved all of this without the support of our partners in the Welsh Renal Clinical Network.”
Health Secretary Vaughan Gething said: “We have improved and increased the number of local dialysis centres so that more people in Wales can get access to high quality specialist care close to where they live.
“I understand that in this fantastic new centre the nurse staffing ratio will be one of, if not the best in the UK; I hope it will help a great many more people manage their condition well and fit the care they need into their lives in a way that works for them.
“I want to thank the staff and patients for their hard work and collaboration to create a centre that is great to receive care in and great to work in.”
