Changing the paradigm from contraction of peritoneal dialysis programs to increasing prevalent peritoneal dialysis numbers.

Abstract

Compared with other European and North American countries, the United Kingdom traditionally had proportionally more dialysis patients treated by peritoneal dialysis. However as in many economically developed countries, peritoneal dialysis numbers have fallen in the United Kingdom, particularly since the early 2000s. In an effort to increase home-based dialysis therapies, the U.K. Department of Health introduced a new system of reimbursement tariffs favoring peritoneal dialysis and home hemodialysis compared with standard hospital-based hemodialysis. Here, we report how our own center responded to the impending change in reimbursement rates and turned what had been a declining peritoneal dialysis program into one that almost doubled in size within 3 years.