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Report from the Renal Services Transformation Programme
by RSTP National Clinical Director: Prof. Smeeta Sinha
NHS England’s Renal Services Transformation Programme is putting together the building blocks that will drive transformation of renal specialised services in coming years. These transformative interventions are aligned with the national direction of travel to make commissioning of services more patient centric, leading to safer and better care closer to home. Dialysis at home enables patients to continue with extremely important care that is tailored around their lifestyle and moves care out of the usual boundaries of care being provided at a dialysis centre.
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We welcome NKF’s refresh of the annual home therapies report as it shares insights that could aid further development of services and raise the profile of renal services amongst patients, their families/carers, clinicians and healthcare leaders. Over the coming years, we need to continue to engage with all key stakeholders who can ensure that patients have access to home dialysis regardless of where they live; NKF’s ongoing campaign will continue to shed light on keeping this at the forefront.
Over the last year we have worked closely with the NKF and other patient charities to develop and design improvement initiatives at both local and national level. This has informed development of best practice guidance and data insights that will support renal services and commissioners in the future. We also heard patient feedback that outlined concerns around reimbursement of costs to support dialysis at home and through existing commissioning arrangements we have taken actions to address issues, whilst working with renal services.
In addition, we have embedded patient representation in national groups and worked towards establishing this at regional renal clinical network level. I look forward to nourishing this partnership in coming years as we all work towards providing better quality of care, which is equitable and creates best value for patients and our healthcare systems.
