Home dialysis data

Analysis of Home Therapies Provision by Centres In 2021.

For this third NKF report the UK Renal Registry has again provided data to indicate the progress on home dialysis by centres across the UK. It was disappointing to find that the average rates for home dialysis were very similar to 2020, showing that the average number of adult patients per centre on home dialysis (both PD and HD) in 2021 was 17.5%, compared to 17.7% in 2020 and 17% in 2019.

This overall 2021 figure of 17.5% is comprised of 4.6% HHD and 12.9% PD patients. However, this does hide a significant variation in the total home therapy rate across centres from a low of 2.9% to a high of 36%.

Breaking the data down for the four UK nations: the average percentage of patients on home dialysis for England in 2021 was 18.1% (18.3% in 2020), in Wales 18%, (19.3% in 2020) Scotland 11.7% (11.5% in 2020) and Northern Ireland 13.4% (10.9% in 2020).

In 2021 the number of centres with a low home therapy rate was sixteen, compared to twenty in 2020 – these were Ulster, Colchester, Kirkaldy, Airdrie, Wirral, Stevenage, Glasgow, London Guys, Carshalton, London West , Aberdeen, Gloucester, Sunderland, Bradford, Edinburgh, Middlesborough.

These centres fell below the lower limit of the range where we would expect 95% of the centres to lie if there was no variation (see funnel plot).

The number of centres with a high home therapy rate was 15 – up from 13 in 2020.These centres were Bangor, Carlisle, Southend, Ipswich, Coventry, Nottingham, Portsmouth, Birmingham, Plymouth, Shrewsbury, Derby, Stoke, Swansea, Salford, Manchester Royal Infirmary. These centres fell above the upper limit of the range where we would expect 95% of the centres to lie if there was no variation (see funnel plot).

There were 51 centres with less than 20% of patients on home dialysis in 2021, compared to 49 centres in 2020 and 51 in 2019.

Details of Home Therapy provision by centre, including percentages on PD and HD, as well as a comparison of the data for 2020 and 2021 can be found from page 12.

Percentage of adult patients prevalent to dialysis on 31/12/2021 on home therapies (PD and HHD) by centre

Data from Exeter were not available for 2021