Patients start dialysis at new Cromer renal unit

Round trips of up to 170 miles a week will become a thing of the past for the first north Norfolk patients who start dialysis treatment at Cromer Hospital's new £1 million renal unit today.

Work on the £1 million eight-station dialysis project started in August 2005 and has been funded, in part, by the Bernstein legacy which contributed £500,000 to the project.

Previously some patients who live in north Norfolk have had to make up to three trips a week to the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital in Colney for dialysis.  And on Wednesday June 7, the first patients will start undergoing their dialysis treatment much closer to home and in the new surroundings of the Cromer Hospital unit.

Trust chairman David Prior said: “The addition of an eight-station dialysis unit  for north Norfolk patients is a major step forward and saves patients having to make repeat trips to Norwich.

“I am glad that we have been able to put to good use some of the late Sagle Bernstein’s very generous legacy and these new types of treatment at Cromer Hospital will undoubtedly benefit local patients.”

The new Cromer dialysis unit is located at the back of the Mill Road hospital site.