Greater Manchester CLAHRC to present CKD project at NICE Annual Conference

GM CLAHRC has been selected to present its work on improving care for Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) patients at this year’s National Institute for health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) Annual conference in Birmingham. The presentation, entitled ‘Developing Resources for Improved CKD Management in Primary Care,’ was selected as one of only 20 entries to feature as part of the shared learning awards which focus on implementing healthcare research and sharing tactics with those making a difference in patient care. The GM CLAHRC implementation team worked in collaboration with NIHR CLAHRC for Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Rutland (LNR CLAHRC ) to improve care for patients with CKD. Their project has helped GP practices to diagnose patients with CKD earlier and helped to raise awareness on how to manage the condition more effectively. It has helped to reduce the risks of associated vascular diseases and improved the confidence in understanding early stages of CKD in primary care by using a framework for improvement based around implementing NICE CKD guidelines. Over a 12 month period, the team worked with 11 GP practices across NHS Ashton, Leigh and Wigan, and NHS Salford  to support improvement teams with validating their CKD registers and improving blood pressure management of patients with CKD according to NICE guidelines. An additional 539 patients with CKD were identified through the project and since taking part many of the healthcare practitioners involved expressed improved confidence in treating the condition. Donal O’Donoghue, Project Director and National Lead for CKD, said: “The scale of the challenge is huge. With end stage renal failure growing at 6% per annum, this disease poses a significant financial cost for the health service. The GM CLAHRC Implementation team have done some fantastic work with GP practices in Greater Manchester. They have increased awareness of CKD whilst helping GPs recognise and manage the condition; improving care and outcomes for more than a thousand patients with kidney disease. The collaboration with the Leicester CLAHRC has been beneficial to share findings and examine how research guidance is translated into practice.” Brook Butler, GM CLAHRC Knowledge Transfer Associate, said: “The joining of skills and knowledge from both CLAHRC teams has facilitated great improvements to patient care in practices. We have had really encouraging feedback from practices across Greater Manchester and being shortlisted for the NICE Shared Learning Awards is a great bonus. We are really looking forward to working with our partners at LNR CLAHRC to bring improvements to more patients around the country." Dr Phil Shelton, LNR CLAHRC Prevention Theme Manager said: "Bringing expertise and skills together from our two CLAHRC's has resulted in a more systematic approach to identification, risk stratification and NICE focused improvement for CKD patients. Bringing together the primary care audit skills from Leicester and improvement expertise from Manchester has allowed the development of a powerful suite of tools that together will allow more rapid and focused identification and management of CKD in primary care." The implementation team is now working with LNR CLAHRC to develop a combined IMPAKT tool to improve CKD detection and management. For more details on GM CLAHRC's CKD work click here. The NICE Annual Conference will take place at the Birmingham ICC on 15 and 16 May. Click here for more details.  

Date Published: 29/03/2012