A National Services Framework for renal services is absolutely essential for the future well-being of all kidney patients, chairman Austin Donohoe told the NKF's annual Council meeting in Blackpool.
If the National Kidney Federation is to campaign successfully for better renal services, it will have to show Government why they are needed and what they should look be like. With this in mind, the NKF, through the Kidney Alliance, a consortium of kidney organisations led by the NKF and the doctors group, the Renal Association, is drawing up a draft National Renal Services Framework.
The Government has agreed to National Services Frameworks laying down standards of treatment for diseases like cancer, heart disease and diabetes which will be the basis of commissioning these services. But as yet there are no definite plans for renal services. So the renal community is setting about drawing up its own shadow framework, which will be presented to Government through the recently formed All Party Kidney Group.
The first step would be calculating the need. The average take-on rate for dialysis of around 100 patients per million populalion per year hides huge variations throughout the country, and is much lower than most European countries. It is predicted that there will be an increase of around 50 per cent in the next five years.
The next step would be to work out acceptable standards of treatment, to form a basis for commissioning services for the next five years. "We need to demonstrate credibility by showing that this template is reasonable," said Mr Donohoe.