Today, the Prime Minister has set out a wide-ranging plan to improve the NHS and tackle hospital backlogs. This includes increasing access to appointments closer to home, and collective care approaches including ‘one stop clinics’ with same day testing and diagnoses.
People with kidney disease, and those most at risk of developing kidney disease, need to be able to benefit from these wide-ranging reforms. This includes targeted screening, which can be done locally or remotely to identify the condition and monitor kidney function. Right now, too many people are not diagnosed until their kidneys are already damaged, and opportunities have been missed to make changes or take medication that can help slow the decline of their kidney function.Fiona Loud, Policy Director at Kidney Care UK
We recently found that 1 in 4 people were unable to correctly identify the symptoms of declining kidney function. Kidney disease can affect you at any age, and some of the early signs can be confused with other illnesses. Early identification of kidney disease could have a significant impact in reducing the cost burden on the NHS, and help relieve the pressures on dialysis units and the transplant waiting list (currently at a ten-year high).
The initial results from our recent #BloodyAmazingKidneys campaign show that of the 112,150 people who completed our Kidney Health Checker tool between 16 October and 16 December 2024, almost half (49.7%) have been identified as being at higher risk of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Through our campaign we have heard from hundreds of people who were only diagnosed with kidney disease by chance. They were not aware that they were experiencing symptoms because they didn’t know what to look out for – if people don’t know they are at risk, and don’t know what to look out for, then they will not seek medical advice. Around one million people are living with undiagnosed kidney disease right now in the UK. We need to all be more proactive when it comes to our kidneys and this includes an increase in awareness and understanding in primary care.
The government cite the importance of the NHS Health Check programme in detecting people at risk. However, the National Audit Office recently concluded that the commissioning of the programme was ineffective, had poor integration with primary care, and experienced low uptake among those most at risk. High blood pressure and diabetes are the two leading causes of kidney disease, but if you have a diagnosis of either of these conditions you are not invited to take part in the NHS Health Check programme. This is because it is assumed your GP will be monitoring your health as part of your treatment plan for those conditions and will therefore pick up any changes in your kidney function. However, our research found that 65% of people with these conditions who went on to develop CKD were never told of their risk of developing kidney disease by their GP and many do not recall having their kidney function tested regularly.
Right now, dialysis units are filling up and the transplant waiting list is at a ten-year high. This is because not enough people have been identified as being at risk, and their kidney disease has not been diagnosed early enough. Therefore, it has never been more important to invest in earlier identification and prevention, as they are an investment in the future of millions of people in the UK.
Given the significant cost of kidney disease to the NHS – an estimated £2 billion annually to care for the 3.5 million people currently diagnosed with later stage CKD, with numbers increasing year on year – failing to act is not an option. As well as reducing the economic burden, investment now in earlier diagnosis means more can be done to protect kidney function, ultimately helping people live their lives to the full, rather than facing endless hospital visits, poor bone, heart and mental health, pain, exhaustion and gruelling, relentless dialysis treatment.Fiona Loud, Policy Director at Kidney Care UK
As part of the NHS ten year plan Kidney Care UK calls on the government to take four vital steps to turn the tide on the increasing burden of CKD
- Increase the number of people at risk of CKD being screened, achieving 70% uptake annually by 2035. This includes people with diabetes, people with high blood pressure and people from Black and South Asian communities.
- Achieve the highest rate of organ transplants in Europe by 2035, with a rate of 115 transplants per million population (bringing the UK’s waiting time in line with countries like Spain where people wait for between 15-18 months, as opposed to 2-3 years in the UK).
- Tackle the key risk factors for CKD, by reducing the number of people with hypertension and obesity in the general population by 5% by 2035.
- Guarantee that everyone with CKD receives support to meet their mental wellbeing and social needs, including clear pathways and access to a renal social worker and renal psychological support for every patient living with CKD.
Ultimately, words mean nothing without action and determination behind them. We'd like to work with the government to help ensure their reforms meet patients' needs and address key areas of concern, some of which we know from the annual Kidney Patient Reported Experience Measure survey we run with the UK Kidney Association.