Congratulations to our renal transplant team, who are celebrating an excellent set of results following a new report which analysed the data and treatment of patients with kidney disease.

The report, published by the UK Renal Registry (UKRR), revealed we have the highest patient survival rates following a kidney transplant in the country.
St George’s is consistently above the national average for patient survival at one year and five years after a kidney transplant. This includes patients receiving either deceased or living donor transplant kidneys.

Main highlights

St George’s was found to have:
• The highest patient survival following a deceased donor kidney transplant after one year (98%) and 5 years (94%). Nationally, the figures are 97% and 88% respectively.
• The highest patient survival following a live donor kidney transplant after one year (99%) and 5 years (95%). Nationally, the figures are 99% and 88% respectively.

The team credit these results in part to ensuring their patients receive the highest standard of care possible from our multi-disciplinary team; as well as having robust procedures for the monitoring of all patients, both pre and post-transplant.

The team also stands out for constantly exploring new opportunities to translate cutting edge research from around the world into better care for our renal transplant population, who are willing to be a part of this.

Paulo De Oliveira, Acting Matron for Renal Services, said: “We have an excellent process in place for patient aftercare; we check in and follow-up with our patients regularly so that we can act quickly if there are any problems.”

“We also have a rigorous system in place for assessing patients on the transplant waiting list and high standards in terms of kidney selection, to ensure the success of the transplant.”

The team also carried out 158 transplants last year, which is the highest number in a year since the inception of the transplant unit in 1994 – a new milestone.

Mr Abbas Ghazanfar, Renal Surgery Specialty Lead, said: "As a team we are very proud of our results. It’s a testament to the high quality care that we provide to our patients. We are not only expanding our transplant programme but also leading from the front to get best outcomes. I would like to thank all team members across our network for achieving such high standards of care."

Dr Joyce Popoola, Consultant Nephrologist and Lead Transplant Physician for Renal Services, said: “The overall results are outstanding and reflect the dedicated hard work of our entire team and the co-operation of our patients. Over the next year we have identified aspects of care for focus such as patient empowerment, adherence and improving our use of information technology which will no doubt lead to further improvements to our transplant outcomes as we approach our silver jubilee.”

Other highlights

St George’s serves an extremely diverse population in terms of ethnicity and socioeconomic status which can makes it more challenging to care for our patients due to varying access. At George’s we are determined to reach out to all our patient groups and to be innovative in our approach in order to ensure we capture all comers. Additionally our renal unit has undergone considerable upheaval over the past  5 years it’s therefore really pleasing to note that our transplant programme continues to excel against all odds.

Blood pressure control remains excellent even in those patients with declining graft function which ultimately leads to prolonged graft survival

We are the top centre in London in terms of renal function at 1 year for both our deceased and living donor transplants for the period of 2010-2016

 

Reference UK Renal Registry 21^st Annual Report released 30th May 2019