KIDNEY patients will receive dialysis treatment without having to travel outside Worcestershire for the first time when a new renal unit opens at Kidderminster Hospital next year.

Wyre Forest MP David Lock yesterday revealed to the Shuttle/Times & News he had received confirmation the £600,000 unit was coming to Kidderminster at a meeting with junior health minister Gisela Stuart.

The 12-station unit is due to be up and running in April 2001, and will mean more than 50 kidney patients will be saved lengthy trips outside the county for treatment.

It will function as a satellite dialysis treatment centre to support the main units at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham and Russells Hall Hospital in Dudley.

Mr Lock said he was pleased his pressure had helped to bring about the "good news".

The bid for funding was prepared by Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust.

Medical director Dr Charles Aston said the unit was "a concrete sign of further improvements to come".

Trust chairman Harold Musgrove said trips to Birmingham for treatment could often take half a day for Worcestershire patients.

"Being able to have their dialysis locally at Kidderminster will mean less disruption to their work or social committments," he added.

The Shuttle/Times & News will next week examine the impact the new unit will have on kidney patients by featuring one of those who will be using it.