South Tyneside patients to receive more kidney care closer to home
A new clinic based at South Tyneside District Hospital will allow hundreds of patients every year to access treatment at their local hospital on a range of kidney disorders.
Sean with Deputy Manager Outpatients, Tony Thornton and auxiliary nurse, Julie Cook.
From June, a weekly ‘nephrology’ clinic providing access to specialist kidney services will take place at South Tyneside District Hospital to make it easier for local people to attend appointments closer to home.
The clinic, which runs on a Tuesday and sees patients with a range of kidney related disorders such as diabetic kidney disease, is part of a commitment from hospital leaders to see more services provided from South Tyneside District Hospital as part of the Path to Excellence transformation of healthcare services across South Tyneside and Sunderland.
The Nephrology clinic is run by Dr Sean Fenwick, Consultant Nephrologist who specialises in kidney care and treating diseases of the kidneys and is also Director of Operations for both Trusts.
Sean said: “As part of our commitment to secure the long term future of South Tyneside District Hospital and enable more people to be seen and treated at their local hospital, I have started a new weekly clinic in South Tyneside which means that around 20 patients each week will not have to travel to Sunderland.
“This is a very positive step in improving the provision of care locally and I hope will be welcomed by patients who will no longer have to travel to Sunderland to attend their regular clinic appointments
“Whilst there will always be the need for some of our specialist kidney services to run from Sunderland, such as transplant follow up, we are fully committed to providing more services locally from South Tyneside when it is safe for us to do so.
“Our two trusts working together has given us the potential to expand our specialist kidney services in South Tyneside for the benefit of patient care and this would simply not have been possible without the strong partnership we have now in place across both hospitals.”
South Tyneside and City Hospitals Sunderland NHS Foundation Trusts have worked together in an alliance known as the South Tyneside and Sunderland Healthcare Group since 2016.In May 2018 both Trusts confirmed their shared intention to work towards becoming one organisation in the future.
Alongside Newcastle and Middlesbrough, Sunderland is one of only three major centres in the North East specialising in renal medicine, providing investigations, treatment and renal replacement therapy to patients from South Tyneside and Durham as well as Sunderland, who have acute or chronic kidney problems.
The new weekly Nephrology clinic in South Tyneside follows the appointment of Dr Shalabh Srivastava, a leading UK kidney specialist who became the first ever Consultant Nephrologist to join South Tyneside District Hospital in August 2017.Since then and for the first time ever, people with kidney problems living in South Tyneside have been able to attend a clinic locally, rather than travelling to Sunderland for ongoing routine appointments and check-ups.
