A pilot community dialysis facility in Campbeltown will be officially launched this week - raising hopes that something similar might be introduced on Bute.

The Campbeltown Hospital facility, which came into operation earlier this month, means that kidney patients in Kintyre will no longer have to undergo gruelling trips to the Greater Glasgow and Clyde area to receive the essential treatment.

At present kidney patients on Bute have to travel to Inverclyde Royal Hospital in Greenock for dialysis - a trip which can be particularly taxing when bad weather affects ferry services.

Local dialysis patient Joe Johnstone, who started a petition on the subject earlier this year, said: “There are five dialysis patients on Bute now. I had a meeting with someone from NHS Highland who is a renal patient himself, and he says once the Campbeltown unit has been up and running for a while they’re going to look at whether to provide one in Rothesay.”

* More detail in this week’s issue of The Buteman - on sale from Thursday, August 20.

...