Making holidays possible for kidney patients
A LISPOLE woman, who is one of two nurses to set up a private dialysis service, is making it possible for people who require life sustaining kidney treatment to visit Ireland.
Barbara Wallace, daughter of Mary and the late David Donegan of The Wood, has set up a dialysis service at her business partner Eileen Phelan’s home in Banteer, Co. Cork. Although the treatment centre only opened two months ago it is already in demand among visitors from California, New York and London.
Barbara and Eileen worked together in a dialysis unit in Brighton where Eileen was the senior sister in charge of the unit. She is currently the clinical nurse manager of the dialysis unit in CUH. The two vastly experienced dialysis nurses recognised that a huge gap exists in the services available for visitors to Ireland who require dialysis and seized the business opportunity.
“We would like to give people freedom to be able to travel to Ireland,” Barbara told The Kerryman. “We provide a beautiful welcoming environment where people are cared for and because the facility is based in the countryside it can be part of the holiday for patients and their families.”
The service is provided three days a week on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday
Globally some two million people require kidney replacement treatments, dialysis or a kidney transplant and they require a minimum of three dialysis treatments per week. Although kidney patients are generally physically fit and well, the lack of access to dialysis facilities has meant they could not travel to Ireland where the over- stretched HSE service does not have the capacity to cater for visitors on a regular basis.
More information on the holiday dialysis initiative is available on www.irishholidaydialysis.ie or 087 3569061.