Chip sounds alert for kidney patients

State-of-the-art technology will give staff at the kidney dialysis unit at St Luke's Hospital advanced warning of changes in water quality.

The water supply coming into the hospital's Horton Wing will be fitted with a Censar chip, which has been designed and developed by scientists at Yorkshire Water.

It triggers alarms when discoloured, low pressure or more cloudy water passes through the mains supplying the site.

Ken Pilley, medical technician on renal (kidney) dialysis, said: "High water quality is vital to the renal unit. The solution which is used to clean the patient's blood must be made from extremely pure water, without which the process would grind to a halt."

Dialysis machines are used for people with kidney failure. The machines do the work that normal kidneys do, which is cleaning the blood of impurities which build up.

Mr Pilley said the unit was protected by a series of filters, which were changed regularly. "But a sudden influx of discoloured water could clog the filters and temporarily disable the dialysis process."

Early warning of incoming discoloration or turbidity would give staff the chance to change the filters early or isolate the unit's water supply so disruption would be kept to a minimum.

Bradford Hospitals NHS Trust's renal unit treats 42 patients a day, working on three shifts of four hours each.

"If one shift had to be cancelled due to problems with the water supply, we would have to make alternative arrangements for the 14 patients directly affected and there would also be a knock-on effect for all the others," said Mr Pilley.

The hospital has been chosen by Yorkshire Water for the one-year pilot study. Howard O'Neill, head of business customer services for Yorkshire Water, said: "The quality of water across the district is of a very high standard.

"Censar is sensitive to small changes in pressure and turbidity which could affect customers such as Bradford Hospitals NHS Trust."