Renal Replacement Services Planning — A Mathematical Approach

The provision of renal replacement therapy (R.R.T.) is an expensive commitment on the part of the National Health Service in the United Kingdom. The revenue cost for renal replacement services has been estimated to be over ₤4,000 per patient per annum. The resources available for this specialty are very limited — even by the most conservative estimate of need for renal replacement therapy, only a third of the total need is currently being met by the renal units in the United Kingdom. Moreover, it is an area of medical care that has seen relatively rapid technical developments and where future changes are likely. These factors, costliness and scarcity of resources and the technical developments, make renal replacement services an obvious area for planning.