Energy costs alarm Britons on dialysis
LONDON: Sitting next to her dialysis machine which pumps clean blood around her body for four hours every day, Dawn White says she fears Britain’s spiralling energy costs means she will no longer be able to afford her lifesaving treatment.
‘‘Without my machine five times a week, 20 hours, I will die,’’ 59yearold White said, while lying on a bed beside the dialysis machine in a purposebuilt cabin in the garden of her home in southeast England.
White, who has renal failure, is one of 5000 people who have dialysis at home, relying on a machine to filter their blood and perform the vital job their kidneys can no longer do, according to the patient advocacy group Kidney Care UK.
Yesterday, Britain raised its energy price cap, meaning average annual bills for gas and electricity will jump from October, with further hikes set for January and April, and Kidney Care warns spiralling energy costs could cause major problems for those like White.
‘‘Costs are going up this week and they’re going to go up again soon, and unless this is sorted out, it becomes a crisis,’’ Kidney Care UK policy director Fiona Loud said.
The government has promised action to help those facing the predicament, saying this week about six million disabled people in Britain would receive a oneoff £150 Cost of Living payment next month and other financial help with rising energy bills.
But, for White and her husband of 36 years, Paul, who cares for her fulltime and no longer works himself, there is fear about what the next few months will bring.
‘‘I’m very anxious about the winter,’’ White said, as tubes pumped blood in and out of her arm, filtering through the dialysis machine. ‘‘We don’t have a lot of money coming in and I would have to make that decision about going back into the hospital to be able to pay for the house bills.’’
The couple’s income is limited to a carers allowance and government disability payments, and she estimates the cost of running the dialysis machine is £200 a month at current prices, which does not include energy use elsewhere in their home.
They are preparing to reduce the use of their central heating to try to save money.
‘‘We can’t do any more than we have done, I’m afraid,’’ Paul White (61) says as he looks at appliances around the kitchen.
‘‘We could wash up by hand . . . but then you’ve still got the expenditure of the gas boiler.’’
If the couple cannot pay the higher bills, Dawn will have to receive treatment at the local hospital, which only has capacity to treat her for 12 hours a week.
She said that would leave her feeling less well and reduce her independence.
Loud said National Health Service hospital trusts should be reimbursing patients for the cost of their treatment, but many people , like Dawn, had not yet received any funds.. — Reuters