06.08.12
Chronic kidney disease needs improved treatment
Better detection and earlier treatment of chronic kidney disease (CKD) could improve lives and save the NHS millions, a new study suggests.
Research commissioned by NHS Kidney Care showed that 1.8m people in England have been diagnosed with CKD, but there could be another million undetected cases.
Published in the journal Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation, the research showed CKD costs the NSH over £1.4bn a year. Nearly half of this funding is for dialysis and transplantation, even though this only accounts for around 2% of patients.
Nearly 30,000 patients are not receiving effective medication to slow the progression of their disease.
The study also found patients with CKD had thousands more strokes and heart attacks that people of the same age and gender without the condition, which costs the NHS an estimated £178m a year.
Author Marion Kerr said: “Chronic kidney disease has a much greater impact on people’s lives, and on NHS costs, than is generally recognised.
“Most of the spending on CKD is for people with advanced disease. We hope this report will focus attention on the need for early detection and intervention, to reduce the human and financial cost of advanced kidney disease.”
Chairman of the Royal College of Physicians renal medicine committee, Dr Charlie Tonson, said: “Patients with early kidney disease are particularly likely to benefit from lifestyle changes and drug treatments aimed at the risk factors for heart disease and strokes, as these will help reduce the risk of progressive kidney disease.”
Dr Donal O'Donoghue, National Clinical Director for Kidney Care, called the report a “wake-up call” and said early identification was currently a “missed opportunity”.
He added: “Putting the cost of care aside, for individual patients the late identification of kidney disease means delays in diagnosis with a failure to manage risk factors including heart attacks, strokes and progressive kidney disease.”
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