A very big thank you to the Federation for all the work that is done on advising us about strategy. You know we cannot dictate from Government level about how services should be put together, if we are not taking notice of what people are saying on the front line. And that does not just mean staff, it means patients also. I also wanted to say thank you to the Federation for the role that you play in raising awareness, which for me is important as a Minister to have things like the All Party Parliamentary Kidney Group who are lobbying and who raise awareness.

When we as a government launched the NHS plan four years ago, there was recognition that it was going to take a long time to deliver the really genuinely patient-centred service that we wanted to see. That is why it was a 10-year programme of investment and reform. But within that, there was recognition that we needed to increase dialysis capacity and we set a target of over 450 extra haemodialysis stations by 2004. The latest data we have got from the national survey of renal units is that the number of stations has actually gone up by almost 700 between 1998 and 2002. Kidney services entered a new era when we published the new NSF 10 months ago. One of the key principles of the NSF is to ensure patients are consulted and involved in important decisions about their care.

We have established two workforce pilots, one in Exeter, and one in Birmingham.

I personally have been trying to make very sure things like holiday dialysis when people want to go away on business, or just moving around the country, is something that we do need to include, and I have been looking very closely at how we can do it. In July we launched Saving lives, valuing donors, which again was a 10-year framework for identifying the challenges for government, for the NHS, and for the public. Last year we provided £3.6 million via U.K. Transplant to support initiatives in hospitals. The increased number of living kidney donor programs alone has now created a 21% increase in living kidney transplants. We need to develop a better understanding of the reasons why relatives do not give permission for organ donation. The Human Tissue Bill, which is currently before parliament, provides a very consistent legal framework for donation and use of organs and tissue. The bill is going to streamline and update current law on organ and tissue donation to correct some of the current gaps. Amongst other things the bill will make clear that the consent of the individual given whilst alive to organ or tissue donation will be paramount.

We are going to establish a new National Blood and Transplant Authority to support the donation and safe use of human tissues and that new authority will replace the National Blood Authority and UK Transplant.

So over the next ten years we want to see renal services taken to a new level altogether and I think there is an opportunity here to create a real cultural change and to make a lasting difference.

We at Central Government level can provide extra resources, we can set out the vision, but we can only do that if we are in partnership with organisations like yours. If we can get that right, we can makea real difference and that is what the public in the 21st Century expects us do.

From left: Ray Mackey (Co-Vice Chairman), Rosie Winterton (Minister for Health), Gary Lloyd (Co-Chairman) and Michael Hill (Co-Chairman)

Please note, this page is a summary of the full conference speech (click here for the full transcript).

Next >>Dr Donal O'Donoghue - Future Shape of Renal Services