British Renal Society

Tsar’s blog from Donal O’Donoghue
National Clinical Director for Kidney Care

This year got off to a potentially exciting start with 2 important announcements.

Firstly, the Prime Minister pledged that "There will soon be check-ups on offer to monitor for heart disease, strokes, diabetes and kidney disease - conditions which affect the lives of 6.2 million people, cause 200,000 deaths each year and account for a fifth of all hospital admissions.” Gordon Brown announced a national screening programme, the first of its kind in the world, set up to spot the early signs of heart problems, stroke, diabetes and kidney disease. Vascular screening, to be introduced this year or early 2009, will include a series of investigations in primary care together with questions on age, gender, postcode, family history, height and weight.

Secondly, the report of the Organ Donation Taskforce set up by the Government promises major opportunities for the improvement of organ donation and transplantation services in the United Kingdom, with increased promotion of organ donation to the public in general and sections of the community, such as the Black and Minority Ethnic population, in particular.

The Renal community welcomes both of these initiatives and will work with the Department of Health and our National Director of Kidney Care, Dr Donal O’Donoghue, to ensure that these improvements for the health of people with kidney disease are implemented and delivered.

Applications for the 8^th round of BRS Grants are invited from all sections of the renal community.
Application form: click here
Guidelines for applicants: click here
Terms of Reference: click here
Closing Date: Monday 20 October 2008

28th September 2008
Please sponsor our runners in this event by clicking here

BRS/RA Conference 2008
Glasgow
(in association with the SRA)
13^th- 16^th May 2008
at the SECC
For all conference & exhibition information
click here
Conference Pictures now available

Future Conferences
Birmingham ICC 1 – 3 June 2009
Manchester CCC 26 – 29 April 2010

NHS Kidney Disease Specialist Library is now available here

Living with Kidney Disease DVD
This DVD provides valuable practical information to enable the public and individuals suffering from kidney disease to improve their understanding of their condition and other related disease areas and help them to lead a better quality of life through informed choice.
For more information and to order the DVD, click here

Quality and Patient Experience
The DH Renal Advisory Group have created an empowering checklist designed to enable patients to review the quality of service they receive and to help them consider key questions to improve the quality of care they receive.
To view the Renal Checklist click here To view an example of a Care Plan click here

Criteria for Success- Full Document incorporating Criteria Parts 1 & 2 of the NSF is now available.
To Download the document click here…

SAVING LIVES reducing infection - The Saving Lives tools have been updated.
The high impact interventions (including Renal catheters) now reflect the latest evidence and feedback.

The HCAI self assessment tool has also been revised to enable units or Trusts to demonstrate compliance with the Code of Practice for reducing HCAIs.

To access the tools go to www.clean-safe-care.nhs.uk and visit the Saving Lives section.

www.clean-safe-care-nhs.uk is a hub of all of the latest tools, news and guidance on reducing infections including case studies, discussion forums and a monthly e-bulletin in HCAIs. Sign up now to start receiving your monthly bulletin.

Slides from the conference held on 8th March are also now available on this site.

CKD Forum Management Resource for Primary Care and Renal Teams

HD Patient Survey
This questionnaire is for use by renal units to collect information about their haemodialysis patients’ satisfaction with aspects of their treatment. It should be used in conjunction with the Criteria for Success document above. Further questionnaires for PD, transplant and pre dialysis patients are in development.
We are interested in feedback from units about their experience with the questionnaire.
Please contact Rob Higgins (robert.higgins@uhcw.nhs.uk) with comments. We are planning to offer a benchmarking service for units who are interested in comparing their performance to others.
Each unit mentioned in the report will be allocated a code letter known only to them so units will remain anonymous.
As the survey contains no patient identifiers you do not need to obtain ethics committee approval.
Download Patient Questionnaire Download Results Spreadsheet

Implementation of the Renal NSF part 1 can be assessed using the Criteria for Success standards. Progress against many of the standards is measured by a patient questionnaire, and a questionnaire specifically for haemodialysis patients was produced after review by the CfS group, and then piloted in 5 units. The full questionnaire was delivered in units representing 25% of the UK's haemodialysis population. The results show differences between units and differences between our aspirations and the reality of service delivery as perceived by patients. The report includes the questionnaire, and a Powerpoint slide show is also included to make it easier for units to present their results.
Report of Responding Units Power Point presentation of report results

Workforce Planning

The Renal Team
A Multi-Professional Renal Workforce Plan
For Adults and Children with Renal Disease

Recommendations of the National Renal Workforce Planning Group

The final version of the Workforce Planning Recommendations are available here

Contact BRS:
Tel: 01483 764114
Registered office:

brs@britishrenal.org
Fax: 01483 727816
26 Oriental Road
Woking, GU22 7AW