Home Dialysis Portacabin

[David Topham]

 Hello everyone,
 does anyone use portacabins for home dialysis? My reason for asking is we have a patient who wants to dialyse at home   but sadly doesn't have the space internally however he has a decent size garden that is level.
I know from personal experience we use to have dozens of these years ago all of which were fitted out and could be easily moved should a patient be transplanted or demise.
I would be interested to know if anyone is still using this method and if so could let me know their story.

[Ian Wilde]

My unit had their fair share of cabins back in the day. It just became too expensive to buy, crane in and install them. Then after all that expense the patient could be transplanted the next month and you’ve got a cabin to crane back out and dispose of or store for the next person, all at additional cost. So if you have plenty land and your own crane and haulage business, there could be a gap in the market to exploit! Maybe for those type of patients there needs to be a centre away from a hospital where you can book yourself a slot like an Uber. Plenty parking, no waiting rooms just get in and get on.

[David Topham]

Many thanks Ian for your reply, yes i agree with you cost wise it is expensive however we have a patient now who is looking at purchasing a log cabin, this should work fine if it's insulated and fitted out properly
Many thanks for your response

[Gareth Murcutt]

If the patient is not on the transplant list for medical reasons then I think it could be a reasonable investment even with a portocabin.

[Roger Moore]

Pertinent to this thread is the 10 Year Health Plan for England and one of the 3 big shifts to how the NHS works is from hospital to community: more care will be available on people’s doorsteps and in their homes.

[Paul J McCarthy]

Hi just as a side note. we have one HHD patient, they had a wooden summer cabin at the bottom of their garden. We set this up as a dialysis station.  

[fraser gilmour]

Hi David,
I also remember a number of patients back in the 90s with Portakabins up on bricks, housing five stack AK-10s and a Parker-Knoll!
Seemed easier to do back then, maybe more relaxed planning regulations and easier access to capital?  
We're not funded in Dorset for the provision for outbuildings to perform HHD, only the installation of services required to run the equipment. With our HHD patients doing at least four treatments per week taking up a larger portion of the tariff income  it would be difficult to argue that this was included in the funding.
The most we've ever pushed the envelope for is works required for garage conversions on a couple of occasions, lining/insulation/ground works for water and drainage etc, but this hasn't happened very often and was in the days before we could provide the NxStage.
We have had one patient who had a garden office provided through charitable funding, with the trust funding the services installation. But I doubt that would happen now as again we have the Nxtage option.