Enhancing care and saving lives of people with chronic kidney disease

This project aimed to apply best practice to ensure that chronic kidney disease (CKD) is identified earlier within primary care and improve the consistency of care for people living with the condition.

The project team first built knowledge and understanding among primary care staff about best practice in managing CKD, using a 'care bundle'.

The team then supported people with CKD, through a structured education programme, to develop a better understanding of their condition and increased confidence to self-manage.

Key objectives

• Reduce the gap between observed and expected prevalence of patients with CKD.
• Achieve a higher than 95% compliance with the CKD care bundle.
• Increase the knowledge and confidence of primary care practitioners in managing people with CKD and facilitating self-management in those patients.
• Facilitate collaborative self-management in people with stage 3-5 CKD, developing and refining tools for self-management and evaluating the self-management programme from the perspective of patients and practitioners.

Challenges

• It was hard to recruit and maintain engagement with GP practices.
• Some GP practices costed their time and were unwilling to participate unless the programme was cost neutral.
• Obtaining measurement data from GP practices was sometimes difficult.
• Each practice only implemented the care bundle for a small number of patients. In order to achieve greater exposure to the bundle, the team then focused on four practices who agreed to target a greater number of patients.

Who was involved?

The project was led by Dr Kevin Harris, Associate Medical Director and Honorary Consultant Nephrologist at the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust. The project ran in partnership with organisations around the UK including the Kidney Alliance, the British Renal Society, the Renal Association and Heart UK.