Cost of living: 'It's either my dialysis machine or the heating'

Kidney patients who rely on life-saving dialysis machines say they are being hit hard by the rising cost of energy.

Some have seen the price of running their machines at home double.

The NHS helps pay towards costs for some patients but campaigners say its not enough and people are "paying to save their own lives".

Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust says it is reviewing payments "due to the large increase in electricity prices".

Andrea Reavill, from Waltham in North East Lincolnshire, uses her dialysis machine for 12 hours each night but gets no help from the NHS with the cost of electricity to run it.

She is on sick leave waiting for a kidney transplant and said paying the bill is becoming a "constant worry".

"It will be no heating, using the cooker as little as possible, just so I can sleep at night knowing that I can afford to run my dialysis machine until, if, I ever get a transplant," she said.

"Without any form of dialysis, the nurses have told me that I would probably only last up to four weeks.

"I can't afford to run my machine and the heating, there's no choice, it has to be the machine."

John Fryer, from Winterton in North Lincolnshire, said the bill for running his dialysis machine at home has doubled since April.

He has received £100 in reimbursement from the NHS over the past seven months.

"We don't know when we are going to get any more money or even if we are," he said.

"We don't mind doing dialysis at home, we are therefore saving the NHS an awful lot of money, so it would be nice if we could get some of that money back just to keep us at home."

Pete Revell from the National Kidney Federation said patients faced a "postcode lottery" over whether they got reimbursed for the costs of running their dialysis machine.

He said: "Some hospital trusts don't reimburse patients who are dialysing at home, which means they have to pay to save their own lives."

The Department of Health and Social Care said: "Regional NHS England commissioning teams are working closely with NHS trusts who provide kidney services to ensure there are consistent and established processes to reimburse patients receiving haemodialysis at home and that all eligible patients are made aware of these arrangements."

A spokesperson said the department is committed to increasing funding for NHS trusts to help with the cost of living crisis.

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