Patient Phil Sarson travels to Shrewsbury three times a week

People in the area are currently treated at a unit 20 miles away in Shrewsbury, but it is running out of space for Welsh patients.

A new dialysis unit for Welshpool hospital was announced a year ago.

The Welsh Assembly Government said it was now looking at bringing plans for it forward.

The unit was designed to take pressure off the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital (RSH).

My worry is that...this unit will become full again and we won't be able to treat Welsh patients Tom Taylor, Shrewsbury Hospital NHS Trust

The assembly government has approved plans for the new facility in Welshpool and said it accepts there is a problem for kidney patients in mid Wales.

But it said it was not unusual for there to be a two-year gap between feasibility studies and projects being completed.

Montgomeryshire Community Health Council (CHC) said kidney patients had faced a problem for some time.

CHC chief officer John Howard said: "Patients needing kidney dialysis face a very difficult future.

'Unpleasant existence'

"If they can't get dialysis in Shrewsbury then they will have to travel further and they already drive 20 miles to Shrewsbury at the moment.

"Shrewsbury's renal unit is full, but the problem for Welsh patients has been known about for some time."

Kidney patient Phil Sarson, from Welshpool, makes a 40-mile round trip to Shrewsbury for dialysis three times a week.

There are fears the Shrewsbury unit could close to patients from Wales

He said: "I have to get up at 5am on Monday, Wednesday and Friday for four-and-a-half hours on a dialysis machine.

"I'm not very happy, but it's a situation I can't change."

Tom Taylor, of Shrewsbury Hospital NHS Trust, said the kidney unit there could potentially close to patients from Wales.

He added: "The sooner we can get (the new unit in Welshpool) the better.

"My worry is that later this year, if we don't get that unit open, this unit will become full again and we won't be able to treat Welsh patients."

Last year, the National Kidney Federation (NKF) said people should not have to travel more than 30 minutes for dialysis treatment.

There are 20,000 on kidney dialysis in the UK, according to the NKF.

The treatment can be aggressive and makes for an "unpleasant existence."