Renal Outpatients

Gate 5, Level 1, Brunel building, Southmead Hospital
Opening times: 8am - 6.30pm Monday to Thursday and 8am - 4pm on Friday, Brunel building, Southmead Hospital Bristol.

This is the place where patients will meet members of the expert professional team who care for people with kidney problems. The professionals working here include doctors, transplant co-ordinators, specialist nurses, psychologists, dieticians and education team. Wherever possible we arrange for several members of the team to meet with patients at the same visit to avoid having to come to the hospital more often than necessary.

The kidney unit day case area is within the outpatient department. It cares for people having short procedures such as kidney biopsy, dialysis catheter insertion or intravenous iron infusion. It may also be used as a place of assessment for dialysis and transplant patients who are experiencing problems

Royal United Hospital, Bath
There are weekly outpatient services at the Royal United hospital Bath. These are for people approaching the need for dialysis and for people who are receiving dialysis treatment in Bath.
There is a joint clinic with the rheumatology specialists held every second month at the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases in Bath.

Haemodialysis
Haemodialysis treatment is carried out in the dialysis units listed below.

• Southmead Renal Dialysis Unit, Brunel building
• Cossham Satellite Dialysis Unit 
• Bath Satellite Dialysis Unit
• Bright Satellite Dialysis Unit
• South Bristol Satellite Dialysis Unit
• Frome Satellite Dialysis Unit
• Weston (Ambleside) Satellite Dialysis Unit

We now offer shared haemodialysis care at the dialysis units, this gives patients more control over their treatment.

Peritoneal Dialysis
There is a dedicated team of nursing staff to teach people to do their own peritoneal dialysis treatment at home. Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis (CAPD) and Automated Peritoneal Dialysis (APD) are available and will suit different people.

The Community Team
For many people there is a significant advantage to receiving their dialysis treatment in their own home. We are able to offer people home treatment with haemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis. The home treatments are supported by our community care team.

The education team is based within the community care team and coordinates the patient information that is available in the department and is responsible for ensuring that people who may need dialysis treatments have the information they need to prepare them.