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Clacton woman forced to travel 12 hours for dialysis

3:50pm Tuesday 5th April 2011 in Features By Dave Lambert

Long journey – Carol Rusack, who has to go to London for hospital treatment, with husband Klaus Long journey – Carol Rusack, who has to go to London for hospital treatment, with husband Klaus

A WOMAN has to endure 12 hours of travel a week to get lifesaving dialysis because no nearby hospital has room for her.

Carol Rusack, 63, of Recreation Road, Clacton, has to travel to London – a 150-mile round-trip – three times a week to receive her treatment.

A dialysis unit was supposed to open in Kennedy House, Great Clacton, last spring, but is still not operational.

Her husband Klaus said the long distances on top of the treatment takes its toll.

Mr Rusack said: “There is no space in Colchester or Ipswich.

“Carol has to get up at 4.30am on the days of her treatment. She is then picked up by people from the Royal London Hospital.

“It takes two hours to get there, she spends four hours on the dialysis machine, then two hours home.

“It takes up the whole day and it is very stressful. It is also very restrictive.

“Because the hospital picks her up, I can’t go with her and be supportive.

“We have to take it in our stride because it is saving her life, but it is disappointing there is nothing closer.”

Mrs Rusack was hoping to be able to use new renal dialysis facilities at Clacton. The introduction of a unit offering dialysis treatment at Kennedy House, in Kennedy Way, was announced in 2009 and the new unit was supposed to open in spring 2010.

Complications with building work delayed the project and it is still not operational.

Janice Rowe spearheaded the campaign to get the unit.

She said: “I’m appalled at the delay.

“As far as I know all the equipment is in there waiting but not being used.”

A spokesman for NHS north east Essex said the delays were mainly due to changes in NHS policy and legislation.

He said: “We are optimistic this situation can be resolved in the near future and it is hoped we will be able to open the Clacton unit in the next 12 months.”

Comments(19)

allanledwith says...
5:54pm Tue 5 Apr 11

I cannot believe I just read this! What a terrible situation! Surely NHS NE Essex can do better than this? Can't something be set up in the much lorded new Walk in Centre. They had no trouble fitting out their plush offices on the upper floor overlooking the town! Again NHS bureaucratic bumbledom that cannot get the job done for the patients and this poor lady has to suffer this three times a week. Excuse - due to changes in policy and legislation! Yeah they are more important than the patients welfare and treatment aren't they? I thought the NHS policy and legislation was to provide for the sick patients!

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janiscurtis says...
6:52pm Tue 5 Apr 11

In 2002 my father had to do the same journey, leaving Clacton sometimes as early as 4am & returning late evening. He fell and broke his hip whilst in the London Hospital and contracted MRSA while staying there. This was no surprise as the conditions were less than ideal. On one occasion I found him in his own vomit and had to change him myself. Eventually he ended up in Clacton Hospital in isolation, but sadly died a few weeks later. I think he would have lived longer had there been a local dialysis unit and I feel for this poor lady and her family.

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janiscurtis says...
6:57pm Tue 5 Apr 11

In 2002 my father had to do the same journey, leaving Clacton sometimes as early as 4am & returning late evening. He fell and broke his hip whilst in the London Hospital and contracted MRSA while staying there. This was no surprise as the conditions were less than ideal. On one occasion I found him in his own vomit and had to change him myself. Eventually he ended up in Clacton Hospital in isolation, but sadly died a few weeks later. I think he would have lived longer had there been a local dialysis unit and I feel for this poor lady and her family.

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allanledwith says...
7:07pm Tue 5 Apr 11

janiscurtis you email your father had to make the same journey in 2002 and here we are in 2011 and nothing has changed! Its really disgraceful all the money pumped into the NHS by Labour in 13 years and no improvement. I challenged Cllr Julie Young about the new Turner Road Walk in Centre and the palatial offices on the first floor for the bureaucrats. Cllr Young defended that as a benefit. Here we are in 2011 and people are still having to travel to London for dialysis. Its diabolical! This is how Labour wasted NHS money plush offices and big salaries leaving patients in this situation! An answer for these people Councillor Young especially after Labour's prediction how well you will do in the coming election! Justify this - no change for these patients since 2002!

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Boris says...
8:22pm Tue 5 Apr 11

allanledwith wrote:
janiscurtis you email your father had to make the same journey in 2002 and here we are in 2011 and nothing has changed! Its really disgraceful all the money pumped into the NHS by Labour in 13 years and no improvement. I challenged Cllr Julie Young about the new Turner Road Walk in Centre and the palatial offices on the first floor for the bureaucrats. Cllr Young defended that as a benefit. Here we are in 2011 and people are still having to travel to London for dialysis. Its diabolical! This is how Labour wasted NHS money plush offices and big salaries leaving patients in this situation! An answer for these people Councillor Young especially after Labour's prediction how well you will do in the coming election! Justify this - no change for these patients since 2002!
Fair enough to rant at New Labour, and they deserve it, but do you really think things are going to get better under the Tories and Lib Dems, Allan? Haven't you heard about all the routine hip and knee replacements that are now being put on hold because of NHS spending restrictions? And when they try to save money by outsourcing NHS care to medical shysters like Harmoni, haven't you heard of the disasters that have followed from that?
Get a balanced perspective about it. Come along to the Save Our NHS public meeting at the Friends Meeting House, Colchester, next Tuesday, 12th April, 7.30 pm.

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allanledwith says...
1:33am Wed 6 Apr 11

Your right Boris but my beef against Nu Labour was Blair promised the country so much. Then told us lies about WMDs and went off with Bush. Blair & Brown spent 13 years sqobbling and wasting money. A golder opportunity missed. The country left with a massive debt ALL this giving the Torys / Coalition the opportunity to screw the taxpayers!
I'm a pensioner taxpayer and I want to see proper political accountability to the British people. Where's Blair making his £Ms & Brown he hasn't been seen in the Commons since he was chucked out!

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allanledwith says...
11:20am Wed 6 Apr 11

Boris I can't make it to the meeting on 12th April about the NHS. But if you keep me posted them I would like to come to any other meetings because I do support the NHS and I want to see the best for it. I do not accept all of what the Coalition is doing and it seems Cameron is now having second thoughts so I agree the public needs to be in a position to have a voice.

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jut1972 says...
11:52am Wed 6 Apr 11

allanledwith - it wouldnt have been the labour govt that said build a new palatial office it would have been the local management team. So regardless of who is in charge the same self serving idiots will be wasting money.

This must also be costing a fortune in travel costs for the NHS. This is typical NHS language "...it is hoped we will be able to open the Clacton unit in the next 12 months". Not it will. Not we promise. We "hope". So we will be a year late but we arent promising it wont be later. Whichever manager is responsible for that needs sacking. theres one saving straight off.

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ShallowRemarks says...
12:56pm Wed 6 Apr 11

When I was visiting Colchester Hospital a couple of weeks ago there was a chap there who had come from Brentwood to use the Colchester dialysis machine, you couldn't make it up.

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allanledwith says...
4:14pm Wed 6 Apr 11

Jut1972 it was the Labour government who poured unlimited money into the NHS and let the NHS Regional Authority and the NHS PCT's spend as they wished. The NHS is a very structured top down organisation. So the NHS knew from top to bottom how money was/is spent and where. The independent Kings Fund calculated that for every £1 spent in the NHS only 10pence directly benefited the patients! The Labour government also set up the PPIs which will cost a fortune for the next 20 years. It costs a fortune to change a light bulb under a PPI contract? Under PPI a government deartment is paying £2.80 for an 80p pack of orange juice! Yes ShallowRemarks we can believe all of it. Because its the taxpayers public money gravy train and all Government Depts have to spend all their annual budgets before the end of the financial year and get as much capital funding as they can! So today in 2011 as Liam Byrne so eloquently said 'there's no money left' - only a massive debt!

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RB, Lexden says...
6:39pm Wed 6 Apr 11

I feel very sorry for Mrs Rusack and her husband and I hope that this will be sorted out very quickly for them.
Will the Gazette now contact the Rusacks' MP on their behalf,because if he were any good he would be dealing with this on their behalf?.And if their MP is on a fact-finding mission to the Caribbean or too busy doing his expenses,perhaps the Gazette(if they are still allowed to make long-distance calls) should put a call straight through to Andrew Lansley's office?.Because quite clearly the NHS in north Essex cannot be trusted to sort this out in the near future,although I am not sure that Mr Lansley can either.Labour raised billions taxing us to the hilt during their thirteen years in power and their top priority,in 1997, should have been to build dozens of state-of-the art,clean,efficient,
professionally- run hospitals,with the very finest medical equipment,Waitrose-q
uality food and free parking.Instead they blew everything on politically correct projects few of us wanted: creating tens of thousands of public sector non jobs,the disastrous and now-discredited multiculturalism experiment,the creation of the Human Rights industry which,in turn, has made Britain a safe haven for terrorists and foreign criminals we now cannot kick out,the transfer of yet more powers and enormous sums of cash to the despised EU,so we are no longer in charge of our own country.
Labour's priorities were hopelessly wrong and now good and decent people like Mr and Mrs Rusack are having to suffer for that ineptitude.I wish them well.

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5665 says...
10:28pm Wed 6 Apr 11

ridiculous

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RB, Lexden says...
8:15am Thu 7 Apr 11

Yes,Labour's thirteen year reign was a ridiculous waste of time and billions of pounds,which could have been better spent helping more deserving people like Mr and Mrs Rusack.Perhaps that is why Labour were deservedly kicked out.

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Boris says...
12:31am Mon 11 Apr 11

allanledwith wrote:
Boris I can't make it to the meeting on 12th April about the NHS. But if you keep me posted them I would like to come to any other meetings because I do support the NHS and I want to see the best for it. I do not accept all of what the Coalition is doing and it seems Cameron is now having second thoughts so I agree the public needs to be in a position to have a voice.
Allan, as I don't know your e-mail address, the best I can do is point you to the website of Colchester NHS SOS:
http://www.colcheste
r-nhs-sos.org.uk/
.
This mentions the meeting on Tuesday 12th, also an event on Saturday 30th April. Other events will be posted on this website as they are arranged.
Also, we shall be running a stall at the junction of Eld Lane and Lion Walk, on the next two Saturdays (16th and 23rd April) and you would be welcome to come and talk to us there or at any rate pick up leaflets and sign our petition.
.
Apologies that I have only just spotted your comment from several days ago.

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Boris says...
12:34am Mon 11 Apr 11

Sorry, should have added for the stall on 16th and 23rd April, this will be from 12 noon to 2 pm each of those days.

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allanledwith says...
12:43am Mon 11 Apr 11

Hi Boris afraid I'll still be away but I will pick up with you sometime. I'm appalled what I'm reading now in the press by Dr Peter Carter of RCN that the NHS cuts are going to hit frontline medical staff. This is what we should have a 'peoples march' about. It seems NHS bureaucrats are being rehired and nurses laid off! G Brown has now admitted he did screw up with the banks leading up to this. So we know who is really to blame. But Coalition cuts to frontline NHS medical staff are not on!

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Boris says...
11:24am Mon 11 Apr 11

OK Allan, you know now where to find the info. Anyway with a bit of luck, the way things seem to be going, thewre could be a u-turn any day now, in which case the march on the 30th will be a celebration.
The NHS cuts have already hit front line medical staff. We need to see those people reinstated.

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allanledwith says...
6:41pm Mon 11 Apr 11

Boris of COLCHESTER NHS SOS - now the headlines are 40,000 front line medical doctors and nurses may go!
Whoes going to attend patients then?
Not the bureaucrats and managers being rehired I've read about! The UK people being let down by politicians of all parties. Glegg now agrees with Lamb we read. PEOPLE POWER FOR UK PATIENTS! screw the politicians!

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blockpaver says...
8:22pm Mon 11 Apr 11

As I always say: “The NHS is a marvellous institution provided that you’re never ill and have to use it“. With the impending cuts things can only get worse. Good luck to this lady and I hope that she gets a better treatment soon, however be careful what you wish for a I hear that the local dialysis unit isn’t a bed of roses.

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