Health leaders say the service is planned for the whole area

The Furness Dialysis Patients Action Group says it is tiring to have to make the journey between Barrow and Kendal.

Westmorland General Hospital is a 'satellite' unit for the Preston regional specialist renal centre.

Morecambe Bay Primary Care Trust says it is sympathetic but needs to look at the whole area and a Kendal base means people do not have to go to Preston.

Michael Sutton, from the action group, said: "A lot of the older patients tend to find the journey quite a strain and a lot of stress.

'Aspire to'

"We have patients that are quite elderly, very weak and very frail. We have patients who have artificial limbs etc so the journey can be quite an agonising issue for them."

He said he thought about 14 or 15 patients a week from the Barrow area travelled to Kendal at the moment.

He said if a unit was to open in Barrow, it would be filled straight away.

Morecambe Bay director of public health Dr Frank Atherton said Kendal was chosen because it was central for people around the bay.

He said the dialysis service was managed on a Lancashire and South Cumbria basis, so the whole area needed to be considered and planning such a development was a major exercise.

He said: "I understand entirely what the people in Barrow think, that they would like to have the service as local as possible, that is something we would aspire to.

"But it's something that needs to be planned over a period of time."