When dialysis becomes necessary — a plain-language guide.

Most patients hear "dialysis" and imagine the worst. In reality, it is a routine, well-tolerated treatment that buys years of comfortable life when kidneys lose the ability to clean blood themselves.

We start dialysis when blood tests and symptoms together point to advanced kidney failure — usually a glomerular filtration rate (GFR) under 15, breathlessness from fluid build-up, and persistent nausea or itch.

What a session looks like

Each session takes around four hours. You sit in a recliner, a needle is placed in a forearm vessel (or a tunnelled neck catheter for new starters), and the machine cycles your blood through a filter and back in. Most patients read, watch a film, or sleep.

Three sessions a week is standard. Our unit runs morning, late-morning, evening and night shifts so working patients can fit treatment around their schedule.