Diabetic kidney disease is the theme for World Kidney Day this year .Have you seen the
video clip? So I was reading the findings from
Diabetes E published earlier this month with some interest.
Diabetes E is a web-based, self assessment, diabetes care, performance improvement tool that supports implementation of the diabetes NSF. It measures and benchmarks the performance of all aspects of a system of diabetes care and actively encourages continuous improvement. Looking back to 2005, there have been tangible improvements in renal screening and management scores over the last 5 years. The percentage of PCTs completing the kidney care module has increased from 46% to 64% and perhaps more importantly the percentage of PCTs scoring over 90% has increased from 8% up to 37%. 78% of PCTs now have an agreed care pathway with their providers for the management of people with diabetes and micro-albuminurea and the report claims all people with advanced chronic kidney disease (stages 4 and 5) have access to a multi-disciplinary team.
But there is much to be done. Less than half of PCTs have an individual or group responsible for quality assurance and clinical governance of the renal screening programme and over one third of PCTs and their providers don’t have an agreed care pathway to support people with diabetes who have end stage renal failure. A new commissioning guide for diabetes and kidney services published last week by NHS Diabetes and Kidney Care should help primary care commissioners address these gaps. Priorities have been set and hopefully the focus on diabetes and kidney disease that World Kidney Day 2010 will bring will be an impetus for substantial improvement over the next 12 months.
