St Andrew's Toowoomba Hospital, in conjunction with Diaverum Pty Ltd, has established the first private renal dialysis facility on the Darling Downs.

The twelve-station unit can treat up to 48 patients and is equipped with twelve state-of-the-art dialysis machines, the first of their kind outside the United States of America.

The Renal Dialysis Unit at St Andrew's Hospital for private patients has meant some pressure being lifted from the public sector and also the development and sharing of expertise for joint education programs and other initiatives between St Andrew's and Toowoomba Base Hospital.

The Renal Dialysis Unit has invested significantly in ensuring that its dialysis machines are connected to the purest water supply currently possible. All water from the Toowoomba City Council supply is filtered when it enters the hospital, but the water used for dialysis goes through a further seven stages of filtration.

This process removes particles as small as 0.22 microns in diameter, resulting in water supply having 99.9% of all bacteria removed. The entire water supply is tested twice a day by nursing staff and is backed up by a regular testing program by a microbiologist.