Kidney unit for hospital looks likely

Plans for a new dialysis unit in Welshpool are one step closer to becoming a reality, it has emerged today.

Health officials in Powys have set up project team in a bid to help take things forward. It is now hoped the unit will be up and running by the end of the year.

Campaigners have been fighting for a new dialysis unit at Welshpool Hospital for more than three years.

People in the area are currently treated at a unit 20 miles away in Shrewsbury.

A new unit was announced more than three years ago after the Welsh Assembly Government approved plans, but funding was never allocated.

Earlier this year WAG announced that a service for Powys had been listed as a priority.

Pat Tempest, planning and corporate services manager for Powys Local Health Board said: "In liaison with Health Commission Wales and the North Wales Renal Network, the LHB has established a project team has to work up the business justification case for the development of a renal dialysis unit at Welshpool hospitals.

John Howard, of Montgomery Community Health Council, said he was pleased.