A new renal dialysis suite at Dewsbury and District Hospital will be opened officially tomorrow.

It doubles the capacity of the unit at Dewsbury, which is run by staff from the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. Now 12 patients will be able to receive dialysis simultaneously.

The development has cost £600,000 and operating costs will be £700,000 a year. Many of the patients are on the kidney transplant list and require long-term dialysis, often spending fours hours on dialysis three times a week.

The new suite will be opened by Bill Kilgallon, chairman of the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, and Dev Sharma, chairman of Calderdale and Kirklees Health Authority.

John Hemingway, chairman of Dewsbury Health Care NHS Trust, said: "I am delighted this new expanded development is now providing an essential service and relieving some of the pressure on Leeds Hospitals."