A wife has spoken of her dismay after health bosses changed the criteria over setting up a kidney dialysis unit in the north of the county.

Miranda Berry launched a campaign for a new centre to be opened at Banbury’s Horton Hospital after becoming concerned the three-times-a-week trip to the Churchill Hospital, in Oxford, was taking its toll on husband Steven.

Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust originally told Mr and Mrs Berry that to make a satellite unit viable there needed to be around 24 dialysis patients living in North Oxfordshire and that a centre would be looked into next year.

But that figure has since changed to between 28 and 40 patients, and last night the PCT confirmed a unit would not be set up before 2011. Mother-of-three Mrs Berry, 50, said: “I think they are trying to make things difficult.

“How hard is it to open a satellite unit? They are just being awkward.

“The PCT is treating these poor patients like numbers.

“I have got it in black and white, that to make a small unit the number of patients has to be at least 24. It doesn’t say 24 to 40. I think they are playing games. It’s not good enough.”

As part of her campaign, Mrs Berry launched two petitions, lobbied Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals Trust and Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust and got the backing of town MP Tony Baldry.

At that time Mrs Berry knew of about 21 dialysis patients within the Horton Hospital’s catchment area – just three short of the original requirement – which includes Banbury, Bicester, Brackley, Chipping Norton and surrounding villages.

Mrs Berry said both her husband’s kidneys had failed and he would need dialysis for the rest of his life after the couple ruled out a second kidney transplant.

She said: “It’s really important to me to have it at Banbury – it’s what’s best for Stephen.

“It’s bad enough being on dialysis. He’s ruled by it – we can’t just go off on holiday, and he still has to go up at Christmas. You can’t put a price on a person’s health.

“I would rather have my husband off dialysis than win the National Lottery.”

Mr Berry, 51, tried home dialysis, but he had to stop when his wife became ill.

Mrs Berry said: “He had a transplant but it went terribly wrong – I nearly lost him. He ended up in intensive care at the John Radcliffe Hospital twice.

“His consultant says why don’t you try again, but obviously we don’t want to take that chance again. He’s got to spend the rest of his life on a machine – I want the best for him.”

Philippa Muir, head of specialist commissioning, said the Renal Unit would be developing a business plan.

She added: “With the need to agree an option and identify funding prior to any firm decision, they are not anticipating anything changing before 2011 at the earliest.”