Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the risk to patients that receive in-centre haemodialysis of contracting covid-19 while undergoing their treatment.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) ‘COVID-19 rapid guideline: dialysis service delivery’ which was updated 11 September 2020, sets out guidance for clinicians to maximise the safety of patients on dialysis during the pandemic. It contains guidance on continuing, where safe and necessary, dialysis provision both at home and in dialysis units while making the best use of the National Health Service resources and matching the capacity of dialysis services to patient needs if these become limited, or the schedule is altered, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. If changes to the dialysis schedule are needed decisions regarding the needs of individual patients should be made on a case by case basis. The guidance also contains additional recommendations to minimise risk of transmission to patients, including when travelling into the dialysis unit and minimising time spent in waiting rooms. The guidance is can be found at the following link:

www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng160

The care of renal patients during the COVID-19 pandemic is supported by local Renal Clinical Networks and they have access to weekly data on COVID-19 infections to assist in overseeing access to dialysis in all settings.