GM CLAHRC one step ahead in improving care for people with CKD
Recent news reports have drawn on the fact that there is a huge shortfall in the number of people being diagnosed and managed appropriately for chronic kidney disease (CKD). The great news here in Greater Manchester is that the GM CLAHRC has been collaborating with GPs to address this for nearly three years and is actively working to improve this picture locally.
NHS Kidney Care has released a health economics report this week which has been summarised in the medical journal Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation calculating the direct and indirect national costs of CKD that amount to £1.4bn annually. This is the estimated cost of treating CKD, and the complications that arise from it such as other cardiovascular events.
The report predicts that on top of the 1.8 million diagnosed cases, there may be a further 900,000 undiagnosed cases. These untreated cases are the ones thought to be at most risk of developing further complications.
The GM CLAHRC has worked with 30 local practices over the last two years to identify over 1,800 additional CKD patients, and improve the management of many more patients already registered with these practices. The Consultant for Public Health in NHS Ashton, Leigh and Wigan, Julie Hotchkiss, said: “Before this project CKD didn’t really feature, but we know it is a major cardiovascular disease and that we can intervene, and so it has come right up the agenda because CVD is our biggest killer and causes many premature deaths.”
Whilst there are many more undiagnosed patients still to find, the project has helped us to develop the IMproving Patient care and Awareness of Kidney disease progression Together (IMPAKT) tool in collaboration with the Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Rutland (LNR) CLAHRC. IMPAKT will help answer to address this problem across the country with its combination of a CKD focused Improvement Guide, audit tool, and a self-management guidebook for patients. This suite of tools will be available for use by primary care teams to identify missing CKD patients, and improve care for patients already identified.
More information on the project outcomes can be found here.
Find out more information about IMPAKT or by emailing John Humphreys, Knowledge Transfer Associate.
Date Published: 07/08/2012