The $1 million centre in the Colonel Bob McLean Wing has nine chairs for patients to use for dialysis, up from the six previously available.

The dialysis unit’s clinical nurse specialist Yvonne Waters said there were up to six people on a waiting list and patients had to travel regularly to Wangaratta because of a lack of chairs on the Border.

There are 23 patients, aged from 18 to 82, who use the Wodonga service and they have to sit for five hours, three times a week while they receive dialysis.

Among them is Wodonga retiree George Whitehead, 73, who is in his 11th year of dialysis.

He reckons the new room, which offers garden views as well as televisions for each chair, is “marvellous”

&ldquo ;We’ve been waiting a long time for this, when I first started they were talking about it,” Mr Whitehead said.

Ms Waters said the room previously used for dialysis at the hospital was restrictive, with its windows shuttered.

“We were squeezed in a place about a third of the size and there were occupational, health and safety issues because we were tripping over equipment, but once the garden gets going here it will be much more pleasant,” Ms Waters said.

“It’s still clinical but it’s a lot lighter.”

The expansion of services comes as a new renal physician, Dr David Rutherford, starts on the Border after moving from Sydney.

Dr Rutherford, who grew up at Howlong, will join Dr Russell Auwardt as consultant kidney specialists to the hospital.

He has specialised in renal medicine for the past seven years and believes demand for dialysis will grow.

“We would expect demand to rise simply because of the burden of high blood pressure and diabetes,” Dr Rutherford said.

“I think we already need more chairs, but this is a significant investment and will ease the burden on our local dialysis population, particularly in needing to go to other centres like Wangaratta in order to have their dialysis.”

Dr Auwardt said he hoped the three extra chairs would cater for the immediate future, but expected the ageing population, diabetes and high blood pressure to drive further demand.

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