In 1998 the NKF with the guidance of the then chairman, Austin Donohoe, took the initial steps to establish the Kidney Alliance - they did this in the full knowledge that this body would be charged with the task of producing a set of UK wide Dialysis standards in the absence of a Government Renal National Service Framework.
Our document is not a Government sponsored Renal National Service Framework - we will have to accept the renal section of the Diabetes National Service Framework for that - and I am serving on the Diabetes NSF working party to ensure that renal matters have a fair hearing within this Government NSF.
This new document of ours - “A Framework for Planning and Service Delivery” - sets out clearly all the issues and all the standards necessary for effective treatment that you would expect to be contained in the Dialysis section of a Renal NSF - and for that reason patients will welcome it with open arms.
It will be a very blind Government that does not take this document to heart - it will be a very blind Regional Commissioning Group that does not take this document to heart, and it will be a very blind Kidney Patient Group that does not compare the standards that they are receiving with the standards set out here for all to see.
We must put an end to postcode provision of renal standards, we must put an end to the areas of the United Kingdom that have poor provision or no provision at all. It is not just our quality of life that is at stake - it is in many cases our lives.
The National Kidney Federation is the Kidney Patients voice - it is the only Kidney Charity run by kidney patients, for kidney patients. Currently there are Thirty Three thousand of us - in ten years time there will be Sixty Six thousand of us. All of us have a vested interest in promoting this document - demanding its acceptance at every level - be it within Renal Units, within Hospitals, Health Authorities, Regional Commissioning Groups or in Government itself.
Nothing less is acceptable.
23 January 2001
Page created: 23 January 2001
Last updated: 22 April 2008
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