Kidney Diseases: Dialysis Machines

(asked on 3rd November 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his most recent assessment is of the cost benefit to the NHS of the provision of dialysis services in a patient's home compared to dialysis services in-centre.


Answered by
Maria Caulfield Portrait
Maria Caulfield
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
This question was answered on 9th November 2021

The average yearly cost per patient (a) in-centre and (b) home-dialysis, including the cost of treatment and management, is below:

  1. In-centre dialysis (assuming 3 cycles per week) £24,804 per year
  2. Home dialysis (based upon 4-6 cycles per week) £25,116 per year

The information quoted relates to the National Health Service (NHS) in England only. Devolved Administrations will differ. All costs will be indicative only, as Market Forces Factor (MFF), transport costs, planned outpatient review and non-elective care will differ between patients and provider contracts.

No recent assessment of the cost benefit of home dialysis compared to in-centre has been made. Assessing such cost benefits to the NHS are part of the Renal Services Transformation Programme (RSTP), which commenced by NHS England in 2021. Cost benefit analysis will vary between providers based upon transport costs and existing demand and capacity constraints in local NHS facilities.

As outlined in the March 2021 Getting It Right First Time Programme National Specialty Report for Renal Medicine, there is a strong preference amongst patients for home dialysis. This is why one of the strategic aims of the RSTP is to increase the percentage of patients per centre receiving home therapies to 20%.

No recent estimate of the health benefits to patients or costs of opening dialysis centres from six to seven days per week has been made.

Reticulating Splines