Scotland health minister challenged to endorse new landmark plan for kidney patients

Kidney Research are calling on the Scottish Government to commit to turn the tide on kidney disease.

Kidney Research UK have assembled a working group including nephrologists, GPs doctors and patients, which has launched a new action plan making a series of recommendations to improve the diagnosis and treatment of chronic kidney disease for everyone in Scotland.  

The plan, titled ‘Chronic Kidney Disease: An Action Plan for Scotland’, was unveiled in Edinburgh at an event attended by Scotland’s Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health, Jenni Minto, MSPs, patients, clinicians, GPs and representatives from across the health and care sector. It comes 20 years after an opportunity to form a national plan for chronic kidney disease (CKD) was turned down by the then-Health Secretary.  

The working group has made 19 recommendations within the action plan to minimise preventable CKD and kidney failure through timely and equitable access to diagnosis, treatment and the care and support needed to live well. 

The action plan includes measures to improve the monitoring of people with diabetes and heart disease who are at most risk of CKD, support GPs and other primary care staff to lead on diagnosis and management, and ensure patients can access specialist emotional, practical and digital support. 

Rising scale of kidney disease 

As their 2023 report outlined, kidney disease is on the rise and the soaring costs associated with it could be catastrophic, therefore swift action is vital. The number of people in Scotland whose kidney failure is treated with transplants or dialysis, has increased by almost 60% since 2004. Treating all stages of CKD now costs NHS Scotland almost £0.3bn a year and could rise to over £0.6bn by 2033.  

They have gathered experts who were involved in lobbying for change 20 years ago together with a new group of academics, clinicians and patients to call on the Scottish Government to implement the action plan and prioritise the health of more than 600,000 Scots thought to be living with CKD, including 240,000 currently undiagnosed.

Our former chair of trustees, Professor Jeremy Hughes, professor of experimental nephrology at the University of Edinburgh is the chair of the Kidney Research UK in Scotland CKD working group. He said: 

“It is possible to build a better future for people with CKD and this action plan shows the Scottish Government how this can be achieved. This investment is vital to avoid the looming nightmare of thousands more people requiring exhausting, expensive dialysis, as predictions based on existing data show. Embedding and prioritising CKD in Scottish government and public health policy is the only way forward.

“In the early years of the new Scottish Parliament, patients and eminent colleagues asked for CKD to be made a priority by the then government. Tens of thousands of people have been affected by the decision to ignore that advice. Now is the time for a new Scotland-wide focus on CKD.”

Read the Action Plan for Scotland.

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