Travelling to Seychelles on Dialysis: How Holiday Dialysis Works

Being on dialysis does not end travel. It does mean that a holiday starts with a clinical handover, months before it starts with a suitcase.

That is the single most useful thing to understand. Holiday dialysis, or "dialysis away from base" as UK units call it, is not a booking. Your home unit is transferring your care to a unit that has never met you, in a country whose infection surveillance it cannot inspect. Both units are managing risk on your behalf, which is why the paperwork is heavy and the lead times are long. It is not bureaucracy for its own sake.

Start earlier than feels reasonable

The published advice converges from several directions. DaVita advises booking at least three months ahead, and Kidney Care UK advises at least three months for international travel. The Edinburgh Renal Unit's handbook says requests to overseas units should be sent a minimum of six weeks in advance, in writing, offering alternative dates.

So: six weeks is the floor, three months is the realistic target, and for a small island with a single documented operator and a finite number of chairs, earlier is strictly better. Peak tourist season is the obvious pinch point.

What your home unit has to send

This is the part patients can actually own. Ask your unit for these, in one packet, and chase them.

1. Virology status: hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV. Non-negotiable. Host units segregate patients and they need to know which side of the line you are on.
2. Recent blood results. UK practice is virology roughly six to eight weeks before travel and other bloods roughly four weeks before, so that everything is current on arrival.
3. The full dialysis prescription. The Edinburgh handbook is specific: dialyser type, dialysate composition, anticoagulation protocol, dry weight, and vascular access type.
4. A complete, current medication list.
5. A clinical summary: diagnosis, other conditions, allergies, recent complications.
6. Travel insurance that covers dialysis, covers your kidney condition as a pre-existing condition, and covers repatriation.

The question almost nobody knows to ask

This is the most valuable paragraph in this article.

Ask the host unit to confirm, in writing, that it conducts routine virus surveillance and that it segregates patients who are positive for blood-borne viruses. Ask for it in writing so your home unit can file it.

Here is why. If that cannot be confirmed, UK guidance is that you may be treated as blood-borne-virus positive when you get home: placed in segregation, and suspended from the transplant list for six months (Edinburgh Renal Unit). Six months of transplant eligibility is a real, concrete price, and it is a strange thing to pay for a fortnight in the sun without ever being told it was on the table.

Units also routinely re-test you on return, for hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV, plus swabs for resistant organisms. Your team can also check your hepatitis B immunity and vaccinate you beforehand if needed, so ask early: vaccination takes time.

What we can, and cannot, tell you about Seychelles

We will be straight with you, because a health site that guesses is worse than no health site at all.

What is documented. AMSA Healthcare has managed haemodialysis services in Seychelles since 2015, and describes units at Seychelles Hospital in Mont Fleuri, Mahe, which is sometimes called Victoria Hospital, and at Baie Ste Anne Hospital on Praslin. The Ministry of Health's 2023 national survey reported 230 people on haemodialysis in the country. AMSA's own material states that isolation rooms are available for patients with hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV, which is exactly the segregation capability the guidance above tells you to ask about.

What is not documented, anywhere we could verify. Whether the unit accepts visiting patients at all. What its lead time is. What it charges a visitor. Whether it has spare capacity, and whether that varies by season. Its session times. Whether it can accommodate a visitor who is hepatitis B or hepatitis C positive. Whether it will issue the written virus-surveillance confirmation your home unit needs.

So we are not going to invent any of it. If you see a per-session price for Seychelles quoted on a travel website, treat it with suspicion: the public figures are either uncorroborated third-party listings or government procurement costs, which are not what a visitor pays. The only price that means anything is the one the unit quotes you directly.

Geography anchors you

Mahe and Praslin are separate islands, and the documented dialysis units are on those two islands. This has a consequence that island-hopping holidays tend to ignore: dialysis tethers you to whichever island has a chair for you. Before you book anything, work out how you will get from your accommodation to the unit and back, three times a week, and what that costs in money and in hours. It is not a footnote. It is a third of your holiday.

Insurance, which is where people get hurt

DaVita is direct: Medicare and most insurance companies will not cover dialysis treatment abroad. Kidney Care UK notes that the EHIC or GHIC is not a replacement for comprehensive travel insurance, and in any case those cards do not apply in Seychelles.

So: buy standalone travel insurance, declare kidney failure and dialysis as a pre-existing condition, and confirm two separate things. That it covers dialysis sessions. And that it covers medical repatriation, which on a remote island is the genuinely expensive part. An undeclared policy is a void policy, and that is not a technicality.

If you are on peritoneal dialysis

PD travel is a logistics problem rather than a chair-booking problem. You are not booking a slot, you are moving fluid, and freight and customs make the lead times longer, not shorter.

Baxter runs a travel service that coordinates delivery of supplies. Notice periods vary by destination and can be up to 16 weeks, with a minimum of three months typical internationally and some destinations requiring four months or more. Deliveries are aimed to arrive at least two working days before you leave home. Carry a letter for customs, and get written agreement from your accommodation that it will receive and store the supplies.

One large caveat, stated plainly: we found no evidence of a peritoneal dialysis programme in Seychelles at all. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, but treat PD support as unproven until the unit confirms it, plan a haemodialysis fallback, and know where the nearest haemodialysis unit is before you need it.

The questions to put to the unit

Copy these into your email.

1. Do you accept visiting haemodialysis patients, and at which site?
2. What is your booking lead time, and do you have capacity in the month I want to travel?
3. What is the price per session for a visitor, in what currency, and how is it paid?
4. What documents do you need from my home unit, in what format, and by when?
5. Can you confirm in writing that you conduct routine virus surveillance and segregate patients who are positive for blood-borne viruses?
6. Can you accommodate me if I am hepatitis B or hepatitis C positive?
7. What are your session times, and can you match my usual schedule?
8. What is your out-of-hours arrangement, and is there nephrologist cover?
9. What happens if I need an unscheduled extra session, or admission?
10. How do I get to you from my accommodation, three times a week?

Our full planner, with the documented contact points and the caveats attached to each one, is at Visiting Seychelles on dialysis.

What we are, and what we are not

Dialysis.sc is an information resource. It does not book, provide, or guarantee dialysis, and it never will. Prices, capacity, opening hours and contact numbers change without notice. Confirm every arrangement directly with the treating unit and with your own kidney team before you travel or pay for anything.

Sources

• Edinburgh Renal Unit, Foreign travel for dialysis patients. edren.org
• Kidney Care UK, Your complete guide to travelling abroad as a kidney patient. kidneycareuk.org
• DaVita, Vacation on dialysis. davita.com
• Baxter Global Travel Club, notice periods and bandings.
• AMSA Renal Care, provider website, retrieved 13 July 2026. amsahealthcare.com
• Seychelles National Survey of Noncommunicable Diseases 2023, Ministry of Health, published April 2024. health.gov.sc

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This article is general information, not medical advice. It does not diagnose, it gives no doses, and it must never be used to start, stop or change a treatment. Your dialysis prescription, your fluid allowance, your diet and your medicines depend on your own blood results, your own remaining kidney function and your own other conditions, and those decisions belong with you and your kidney care team. If you are unwell, contact your dialysis unit. In an emergency, call your local emergency number.