Kidney Care UK is pleased to see that the link between chronic kidney disease (CKD) and diabetes is taken very seriously within NICE’s (the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) new draft guidance on diabetes care, and that the guidance aims to reduce the number of people with diabetes who end up with kidney problems and develop preventable kidney failure.
The guidance recognises the new drugs that have become available over the last few years that can help people prevent or better manage their diabetes and any potential kidney problems. For example, the GLP-1 medicines (such as Mounjaro and Ozempic) that can help people lose weight.
There are also a set of medicines called SGLT2 inhibitors (with names that end in -flozin) that have made a big difference in the management of people with CKD who have diabetes, but the roll out of these has been too slow.
We hope that this guidance will help change this. Currently, people are developing kidney failure not because we lack the treatments to avoid this but because the treatments are not reaching those who need them.
Alongside these guidelines for the NHS we now need to see the government take serious action on developing and implementing a comprehensive plan to tackle the rise of obesity and type 2 diabetes. This plan must support people make healthier diet and lifestyle choices.
NICE said:
This represents a significant evolution in how we approach type 2 diabetes treatment. We're moving beyond simply managing blood sugar to taking a holistic view of a person's health, particularly their cardiovascular and kidney health.
We will be responding to this draft guidance from NICE, which they say would be the biggest shakeup in diabetes care in a decade.
You can read more about the draft guidance on the NICE website.
Do let us know if you have any comments on this by emailing our Policy team at [email protected].