Renal services

Our inpatient services are for people needing investigation or treatment of renal disease. We treat:

• people with pre-existing renal disease that has been complicated by another illness
• people receiving dialysis who have are having problems.

Our outpatient service is for people with symptoms such as:

• blood or protein in your wee (urine)
• high blood pressure (hypertension)
• decreased kidney function.

The aim of the outpatient clinic is to find the cause of any kidney related problems and to stop them from getting worse.

Christchurch hospital is a teaching hospital and medical students may be present during your appointment.

You will get an appointment letter with details of how to prepare for your appointment and what to bring.

After diagnoses

Once a diagnosis has been made, the nephrology team will work with you to develop an individual treatment plan. This may involve:

• medications to manage blood pressure or other symptoms
• lifestyle changes such as dietary modifications or exercise
• dialysis
• kidney transplantation.

The clinic runs every Thursday morning.

If your kidneys have failed completely, a treatment called dialysis may be required. Dialysis can take over the job of filtering and cleaning the blood.

We have clinics in our acute dialysis unit or the home dialysis training centre. There are 5 stations at each centre.

The dialysis clinics are open from 8am to 9pm, Monday to Saturday. All dialysis must be completed within these times unless special arrangements are made. We do not provide meals during dialysis.

Visitors from other dialysis centres within New Zealand

To ask about possible short term or holiday dialysis in Christchurch email the charge nurse:  dialysis2@cdhb.health.nzexternal link

We cannot always offer this service if we are at capacity.

International visitors

International visitors can use these clinics but must book 2 months in advance. You must have evidence that you do not have:

• hepatitis B
• hepatitis C
• HIV (human immunodeficiency virus)
• MRSA (antibiotic-resistant infection).

You may need to pay for your care at these clinics. We cannot always offer this service if we are at capacity.

For more information, email dialysis2@cdhb.health.nzexternal link

Information for possible recipients

Most people who have irreversible kidney failure can be considered for a transplant. You must be in relatively good health and willing to undergo assessment.

All people who start dialysis are considered for assessment. You can choose not to be assessed. We do a range of tests to see if you are suitable for a transplant:

• a physical examination
• blood tests
• x-rays of the heart, lungs and sometimes stomach and bladder.

We may do extra heart tests if you are aged over 40 or have diabetes.

All people receiving a transplant have:

• transplant education — written, video or DVD and lecture
• a dental assessment
• a wellness check — cervical smear and or mammogram for women or prostate assessment for men
• blood tests
• surgical assessment.

We use living donors as well as deceased donors for transplants. We can start assessing you for a living donor transplant before dialysis treatment begins.

If you want to be a kidney donor

To find out more about being a kidney donor, contact the team:

• phone: 03 364 1041external link
• email:  kidney@cdhb.health.nzexternal link

This clinic provides high-quality care for people who have kidney disease with distressing symptoms or who are not receiving dialysis.

The clinic provides support and guidance to help you make decisions about treatment. It also helps people and their carers to plan for the future by discussing how they would like to be cared for as their health deteriorates.

The clinic runs every 2 months on a Thursday afternoon in the nephrology department at Christchurch Hospital.

Nephrology supportive care clinic: patient informationPDF172 KB