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North West Kidney Network - improving care for kidney patients
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Green Space

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Kidney care contributes significantly to the NHS carbon footprint. A key area of focus is dialysis – as this requires a disproportionate share of NHS resources, with correspondingly high cost and environmental impacts. Globally, it is estimated that the roughly 2 million dialysis patients require 2 to 3% of healthcare budgets and that their care might be responsible for 14 million tonnes CO2e per year. Around 68,000 patients receive dialysis annually in the UK, a number increasing year-on-year. Recognising this, the renal community are beginning to drive sustainable change within the specialty, with a focus on tackling emissions from procurement, travel and energy use.

In this space you will find guidance, resources and further information about sustainable kidney care across the NHS.  

Kidney care contributes significantly to the NHS carbon footprint. A key area of focus is dialysis – as this requires a disproportionate share of NHS resources, with correspondingly high cost and environmental impacts. Globally, it is estimated that the roughly 2 million dialysis patients require 2 to 3% of healthcare budgets and that their care might be responsible for 14 million tonnes CO2e per year. Around 68,000 patients receive dialysis annually in the UK, a number increasing year-on-year. Recognising this, the renal community are beginning to drive sustainable change within the specialty, with a focus on tackling emissions from procurement, travel and energy use.

In this space you will find guidance, resources and further information about sustainable kidney care across the NHS.  

To reduce the environmental impact of kidney care delivery in the UK, the UK Kidney Association (UKKA) have set up the Sustainable Kidney Care Committee (SKC) in partnership with the Sustainable Healthcare Coalition and the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare. On their page, you can find resources including links to webinars, steps to a greener kidney unit and information on the group’s work and areas of action.

Developed by the Sustainable Healthcare Coalition in partnership with The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, this free online carbon footprint calculator is built for use in in-centre haemodialysis units. It measures the overall carbon footprint and carbon intensity per patient session, and identifies the greenhouse gas emission hotspots from running the haemodialysis unit.

The Centre for Sustainable Healthcare’s kidney care sustainability network aims to bring together healthcare professionals, patients and others interested in sustainable kidney care to share ideas and resources for the transformation to a truly sustainable health service.

Developed by the European Dialysis and Transplant Nurses Association / European Renal Care Association, these recommendations support the kidney care workforce to improve the environmental sustainability of renal units. The recommendations have been drawn from existing sustainable practices across renal units in Europe, and the checklist supports units to understand their current situation before starting to introduce improvement projects.

You can find the recommendations here: Green Excellence in Dialysis

You can find the checklist here: Environmental Checklist

The Centre for Sustainable Healthcare’s Sustainable Kidney Care Course explores the bi-directional relationship between health and the environment, with a focus on kidney care. Using case studies, this course introduces the steps healthcare workers in nephrology can take to make their services greener and become leaders in sustainable transformation. 

There are currently some vouchers available to cover the cost of this course, please contact clare.macintosh2@nhs.net for details.

Implementing incremental haemodialysis

Sustainable action planning in a renal unit

Reducing unnecessary glucose testing

Bolus administration of intravenous antibiotics

North West Greener NHS Newsletter

We produce a fortnightly North West Greener NHS Newsletter please click here to sign up

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