Kidney Disease HIT's 2020-21 update

Dominic Taylor, Director of the Kidney Disease HIT, shares an update on the team’s achievements in the past year.

One in 10 people in the UK have significantly reduced kidney function (Chronic Kidney Disease or CKD). These people have an increased risk of death from heart attack or stroke, and are at risk of developing kidney failure. Treatment from GPs and kidney specialists aims to preserve kidney function and reduce these risks, and, when needed, to treat kidney failure with transplantation and dialysis.

The aim of the Kidney Disease Health Integration Team (HIT) is to improve the health of people with kidney disease in the Bristol region by improving the quality of primary and secondary care services for patients with CKD and Acute Kidney Injury.

Although the Kidney Disease HIT in 2020-21 was paused for six months because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have made progress developing a new system of proactive detection and management for the many people with CKD who do not regularly see a kidney specialist and are managed in primary care. We are collaborating with the Bristol Trials Centre to develop this intervention, which we hope can increase access to the right care for kidney disease and reduce inequity, and in the post-COVID world we think this novel approach will be even more relevant and necessary. We have also supported work trying to reduce socioeconomic inequity in access to living-donor transplantation and another study trying to optimise the use of deceased-donor transplant kidneys.

On our team we have great representation from local GPs, kidney doctors, researchers, and most importantly, from kidney patients.