Kidney Diseases: Health Education
(asked on 28th February 2024) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to raise awareness of chronic kidney disease among high-risk groups.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guidance, Chronic kidney disease: Assessment and management [NG203], updated in November 2021, sets out best practice for clinicians in the diagnosis and management of chronic kidney disease (CKD). The guidance covers: monitoring for those patients at risk; pharmacological management; and referral where appropriate. The guidance can be found at the following link:
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng203
In addition to evidence-based guidance to support clinicians in diagnosing problems of the kidney, we are also working to detect people at risk of kidney disease through the NHS Health Check Programme. The programme, which is available for everyone between the ages of 40 and 74 years old, who are not already on a chronic disease register, assesses people’s health and risk of developing certain health problems. Using this information, patients are supported to make behavioural changes and access treatment which helps to prevent and detect kidney disease earlier.
NHS England, through the Renal Services Transformation programme and regional renal networks, is undertaking a series of initiatives to provide better and more joined-up care across care settings, reduce health inequalities, and focus on prevention and timely intervention through streamlined patient pathways, to address the management of deteriorating kidney disease. Regional renal clinical networks have already prioritised CKD diagnosis and prevention of progression within their transformation ambitions. This includes considerations to develop a unified approach to testing populations at risk of developing CKD, with a view to earlier treatment and raising the profile for the use of specific drugs in the early management of patients diagnosed with the disease. The transformation programme launched a renal toolkit earlier last year for use by care systems, that outlines principles to support better management of patients identified with CKD throughout their patient journey.
The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) reviewed CKD and glomerulonephritis in 2011, concluding that a population-wide screening programme would not be recommended. The UK NSC has not looked at the evidence for a targeted programme. The UK NSC can be alerted to any new published, peer-reviewed evidence which may suggest the case for a new screening programme. Proposals to change or review a topic early can be submitted via the UK NSC’s annual call which will open in July 2024. More information can be found at the following link: