Speaker October 19th
Tony Skipper, head Technician at The Austin Hospital Renal Unit, was our guest speaker on Thursday 19th October. He spoke about the advances in technology and the advances in treatment for renal patients over his years of working in hospitals. Improvements have allowed people to have home dialysis making life a little better by avoiding hours hooked up equipment whilst in a hospital. The technicians will also work with patients allowing them to go away on holliday and liaising with technicians at the holiday location when problems crop up.
Patients don’t always follow the recommendations of the technicians and can find themselves with problems. One patient who went to a very remote area used water that clogged the machine. Without Tony’s guidance of the local technician who was unfamiliar with the patient’s machine the outcome may have been fatal.
Tony spoke about the Austin’s donation process, ensuring that only equipment that still has a number of years of useful life left is donated. Donations from the Austin have gone to needy hospitals as part of our “Horn of Africa Project” and we thanked Tony and the Austin for these donations.
Tony was a very engaging speaker and our meeting wasn’t long enough. We could have done with another 20 minutes.