Renal Patients

The renal team follow their patients very closely and there is always a renal physician oncall. They should be always be involved when their patients present to ED.

They do, however, expect a phone call when one of their dialysis patients (peritoneal and haemodialysis as well as renal transplant) arrive, even if this is in the middle of the night. They expect the triage nurse to do this but all medical staff should make sure that this step has happened and continue to liaise with them closely. The dialysis patients should be carrying an alert card to remind staff to call the renal team. Call them - they want to know and it speeds up the admission process for us - they will come and do the admission for the med reg if they are around.

To view an excellent presentation from our ED Teaching sessions given by Dr Mani Thomas, Renal Reg 2011, on the importance of diagnosing peritonitis in peritoneal dialysis patients, click here.