The Nephrology Service is a tertiary level service provider and is responsible for the care of all patients with kidney disease.
What is Renal Medicine?
Renal medicine, or nephrology, is the branch of medicine that involves the diagnosis and management of people with diseases and conditions of the kidneys.
Your kidneys are two bean-shaped organs, found at the back of your abdominal cavity, that filter out wastes and excess fluid from your blood and excrete them as urine.
Renal medicine includes the urgent care of patients with acute kidney problems as well as those with chronic kidney disease. A doctor who specialises in disorders of the kidneys is called a nephrologist. Conditions seen by a nephrologist may include:
• Acute kidney injury – the sudden loss of kidney function
• Chronic kidney disease – gradual worsening of kidney function
• Haematuria – blood in the urine
• Proteinuria – protein in the urine
• Kidney stone - prevention (urologists primarily manage kidney stones)
• Recurrent or complex urinary tract infections
• Hypertension and those at high risk of secondary causes of hypertension or difficult to manage
Patients with end stage kidney disease requiring renal replacement therapy (dialysis and transplantation)
There is an unstaffed haemodialysis room at Dunstan Hospital (2-3 chairs) and a dialysis room at Invercargill (1-2 chairs) for away from home haemodialysis. For access to Dunstan or Invercargill haemodialysis rooms, please contact the SDHB Dialysis Service on 03 470 9345, or Dialysis Service SM DialysisService@southerndhb.govt.nz, for more details. Please note, access to the Invercargill dialysis room is only for use during normal business hours between Monday and Friday, subject to availability.