The post you are reporting:
It seems that the powers that be have decided that it is no longer necessary to hold a clinic for taking blood at Dover Health Centre, despite the fact that this twice a week service is well used. Actually, necessary is probably not the right word - financial viable is more like it.
So those of us that could get there quite easily (in my case by scooter) will, from July, have to hike up to Buckland Hospital. This will mean a taxi for me, as I can't walk far without pain. An expense I could do without.
I know that the Maison Dieu site is not well regarded for a hospital, but it would be central. Not everyone in Dover has a car, nor do we all live in Whitfield.
We need facilities in Dover. Two weeks ago I had a horrendous experience when I had to go to Dialysis talks at Kent & Canterbury. The transport came 35 minutes early, when I had just washed my hair, and had my insulin but no breakfast and no drink. The appointment was for 10:30 to 12:30 in the Board Room (which is outside the main hospital), but I was "down for" 9:30 in Clinic B. Consequently having been delivered (via Folkestone, where the other person was not ready either) at 5 past 9 I had to wait in a draughty corridor until the doors opened at 10:20, and the meeting over at 12:30 I again had to wait in the corridor until the transport came back for me at 13:40. To add insult to injury the Board room was not heated, in fact it was blowing cold air through the central heating vents. That two hour appointment took nearly 6 1/2 hours, during which I was freezing the whole time (forgot to add did not even have time to put my socks on!)
Don't get me wrong, everyone was very kind, from the ambulance personnel to the nurses at K & C, but take it from me, you don't need this sort of thing when faced with the trauma of starting dialysis.
All this could be avoided if we had decent facilities in Dover, and if the transport people got their facts right. I still don't know how they could have got it so wrong.
Sorry to bore you all, but I needed to get it off my chest.