THE wife of a kidney dialysis patient is urging the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust to rethink its strategy over providing the life- saving treatment in the north of the county.

Miranda Berry, 50, fears that if the trust sticks to its guns over the number of patients needed to justify a satellite unit, it could be years before a centre opens in Banbury.

She has sent a 500-signature petition to the renal centre at Oxford’s Churchill Hospital calling for a change of heart.

And she has won the backing of national charity UK National Kidney Federation, which is campaigning for small dialysis units – similar to home dialysis – to be set up in cottage hospitals or doctors’ surgeries.

The ORH says it needs at least 24 patients to make a satellite unit viable, but Mrs Berry says the trust should consider a smaller centre for existing patients.

The mother-of-three is canvassing support from GPs to house a small unit in a surgery.

Mrs Berry launched a campaign for a north Oxfordshire dialysis unit after becoming worried about the toll that travelling to Oxford for dia-lysis was having on her husband Steven’s health. Mr Berry, 52, has to travel 150 miles a week to the Churchill Hospital in Oxford for dia-lysis three times a week.

She said: “Trying to reach a particular figure is just ridiculous.

“It’s like trying to catch the wind. The number of patients goes up and down all the time.”

The couple said that if there were four dialysis machines at a surgery in Banbury, in use from Monday to Saturday, they could cater for 16 patients.

Mrs Berry reckons set-up costs for a small unit would be similar to providing patients with home dialysis equipment. Currently the trust pays for building alterations, a reclining chair, personal dialysis machine, electricity and equipment.

Mrs Berry said: “We have to do everything we can to make dialysis patients’ lives easier. Steven’s got to spend the rest of his life on a machine and I’m determined to make his life easier.”

Bob Dunn, of the UK National Kidney Federation, said: “There’s no reason not to put a dialysis unit into a local health centre if the health centre had space and was willing to train staff to give support.”

A spokesman for the ORH trust said there were currently 12 dialysis patients in north Oxfordshire and any unit would only be used by them and not by patients from neighbouring counties.

She said: “The trust hopes to go ahead with the unit when there are a minimum of 24 patients who would be suitable to use the unit.

“However, currently there are not enough patients to support a unit in Banbury.”