Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans his Department has to improve the level of knowledge and awareness amongst GPs of acute kidney injury; and who he plans will lead those initiatives.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance Chronic kidney disease in adults: assessment and management, published in July 2014, sets out best practice for clinicians on the diagnosis, treatment care and support of patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). The advice covers monitoring for those patients at risk; pharmacological management and referral where appropriate.

As highlighted in NICE’s guidance on acute kidney injury (AKI), published in August 2013, AKI is now increasingly seen in primary care in people without any acute illness and it is important that awareness of the condition should be raised among primary care health professionals, such as general practitioners. The best practice guidance emphasises early intervention and stresses the importance of risk assessment and prevention, early recognition and treatment. Both sets of NICE guidance can be found at the following links:

www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg169

www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg182

In addition, to support clinicians in training the Royal College of Physicians has worked in partnership with Health Education England’s e-Learning for Healthcare to develop Kidn-e; an e-learning resource to provide easily accessible e-learning to support on the most common and important renal conditions, such as AKI and CKD.