General Practitioners - Local

Help and for general practitioners and healthcare professionals in understanding and managing patients with Chronic Kidney Disease.

The proportion of adults with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) Stages 3 to 5 recorded on GP registers has reached a plateau of just over 4%1, against an expected prevalence of at least 6% estimated from epidemiological studies in the UK2 3 4. There are over 42 million people aged 20 and over in England and Wales from the 2011 Census, and it can therefore be estimated that there are more than 1 million people with CKD Stages 3 to 5, who have not been correctly identified. The consequence for this “missing million” is that many opportunities to improve outcomes are missed. There is major geographical variation in the identification of kidney disease, with the registered prevalence of CKD Stages 3 to 5 remaining below 2% in some Primary Care Trusts/Clinical Commissioning Groups1.

The Royal College of General Practitioners is committed to improve the care of people with CKD. Over the next three years kidney care is one of its clinical priorities with a designated Clinical Champion. The next three years will also see a National Audit and Quality Improvement Programme for CKD in primary care. The current clinical champion is Kathryn E Griffith, BM BS MSc FRCP MRCGP, RCGP Clinical Champion for Kidney Care

As a GP you will likely have experienced the complex issues renal patients face amongst your patient base. They are likely to place significant workload demands on your practice and at times it can be confusing whether the hospital or your practice should be dealing with specific issues. As the St George's Kidney Patients Association, we represent the interests of 100's of patients looked after by the hospital and are interested in furthering good relations between the hospital, ourselves and the GP community within the St George's catchment area. As you may be aware, this takes in a large part of SW London, Surrey & Sussex for transplantation surgery as well as a narrower area for more general renal medcine. We look forward to working with you to improving the kidney patient's experience and quality of life.

Information of interest to GP's

Here are some topics of information that may be of relevance to you if you are a GP.

  • Medical - we're sure you know it! But if you needed any update - or more likely wanted to refer a patient to learn more about what they might experience as a kidney patient - then why not start here.
  • You may want to explore the decision support tools available which could aid you in conversations with your patients and their relatives. There is a self assessment tool for non-diagnosed patients as well as tools for patients with established renal failure.
  • If you need information to explain to a patient how the transplant system works
  • Research there is a small section set aside for the work done at the hospital & nationally as well as contact details.
  • The Royal College of General Practioners CKD programme is current developing education to help improve the Quality of Life for renal patients and reduce risk in Primary Care. For more information read the news item and follow the links to the GP education site.
  • A collaboration of renal doctors and patient groups replaced the Renal National Service Framework with Kidney Health: Delivering Excellence. It describes the issues and priorities in renal care.
  • If you wanted to know what developments are taking place at the hospital.
  • Getting in touch with key doctors and specialist staff at the hospital.
  • Getting hold of patient blood results.

DVDs from Kidney Research UK

This project is the result of a unique healthcare partnership in which Kidney Research UK and the British Renal Society (BRS) worked in collaboration with the NHS, the National Lottery, the pharmaceutical industry, a number of key renal charities and advocacy groups to produce a series of patient-driven DVDs.

The DVDs provide valuable practical information to enable both the general public and more specifically, individuals suffering from kidney disease to improve their levels of understanding of their condition and other related disease areas and help them to lead a better quality of life through informed choice.

Module one is a health awareness educational DVD designed to support healthcare practitioners in promoting the best quality of life for their patients whether they are at risk of chronic kidney disease (CKD), in the earliest stages of the disease or approaching end stage renal failure (ERF).

This initial DVD outlines what the kidneys do, background information on CKD, and what patients diagnosed with CKD can do in terms of diet and lifestyle to reduce the risks of developing vascular complications and slow down the progression of the disease towards ERF.

Watch a preview

To order module one please visit their online shop.

RCGP Books and Education

We've gathered together links to books and course material that you might find useful. Please let us know how you find these. As lay people we can't be sure we've understood your needs yet.

We'd like to hear from you

Although there is some of information here of interest to General Practictoners (GPs),  we would be interested to hear from doctors with patients under the care of the hospital, about what they would like to see on this site. Whether it is general education about kidney disease and treatment from a patient's perspective or access to patient results, let us know.

We'd also be happy to provide patient advocates that can talk to people with CKD.

You can

Either way, we'd like to hear from you!

 

Sources

1.Health and Social Care Information Centre 2012. Quality of Outcomes Framework achievement data 2011/12 (http://www.qof.ic.nhs.uk/)
2.Stevens, P.E., O’Donoghue, D. , de Lusignan, S., Van Vlymen, J., Klebe, B., Middleton, R., Hague, N., New, J., & Farmer, C.K. 2007. Chronic kidney disease management in the United Kingdom: NEOERICA project results. Kidney Int., 72, (1) 92-99
3.de Lusignan, S., Tomson, C.R., Harris, K., Van Vlymen, J., & Gallagher, H. 2012. UK prevalence of chronic kidney disease for the adult population is 6.76% based on two creatinine readings. Nephron Clin. Pract., 120, c107
4.Health and Social Care Information Centre 2009. Health Survey for England, Volume 1: Health and Lifestyles (https://catalogue.ic.nhs.uk/publications/public-health/surveys/heal-surv-heal-life-eng-2009/heal-surv-heal-life-eng-2009-rep-v2.pdf)

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