Sustainable Kidney Care

KitNewCare - transforming kidney care in Europe

The Centre for Sustainable Healthcare is a partner in the new KitNewCare project to make kidney care more sustainable as part of the European Union’s key funding programme for Innovation and research to tackle climate change. 

KitNewCare is employing a systematic approach to decarbonize the European healthcare system: applying benchmark interventions, holistically assessing their effectiveness and aligning major EU initiatives that call for developing, implementing, and upscaling sustainable solutions. The aim is to set new standards in kidney care and influence other medical fields to build a more sustainable future for the entire healthcare system. 

Read more about the KitNewCare project and CSH's role here

UK Sustainable Kidney Care

The Centre for Sustainable Healthcare, in partnership with the UK Kidney Association (UKKA) and the Sustainable Healthcare Coalition, has established a Sustainable Kidney Care Committee. This committee aims to develop and implement a framework to support UK renal services to meet the NHS net zero goal. The primary objective is to inspire and empower members of the kidney care community to take action for sustainability.

As part of this initiative, a Sustainable Kidney Care Group Scholar programme was launched in partnership with UKKA. This programme supported a group of kidney care health professionals and health service managers to carry out a sustainability project over the course of 12 months.

Learn more about the pioneering work of our kidney fellows and scholars here

If you would like to get involved, join the CSH Kidney Care Sustainability Network to share ideas, successes, questions and resources. 

History

In 2009, CSH partnered with the Renal Association, the British Renal Society, the NHS Sustainable Development Unit and industry partners to set up the Green Nephrology programme to support sustainable kidney care.

The Green Nephrology programme successfully implemented:

• Green Nephrology Summits (sponsored by Baxter Healthcare, NHS Kidney Care and the Association of Renal Industries)
• Green Nephrology Fellowships (sponsored by NHS Kidney Care, the Association of Renal Industries and private donations)
• Green Nephrology Network of local representatives - encompassing >80% of UK renal units.

Working intensively in kidney care, Green Nephrology created a model of clinical transformation to inspire all clinical specialties. Leadership from kidney doctors is producing a cultural shift to include sustainability as an integral part of quality. Because of the partnership created between the clinicians, NHS management and industry, sustainable best practice is brought together to inform service redesign, commissioning and procurement, ensuring a far greater impact than could be made through a series of independent projects. 

Outputs from Green Nephrology include a comparative carbon footprint of haemodialysis provided at home vs. in-centre, as well as a carbon footprint of a local renal service and case studies of local green initiatives. The work is viewed as groundbreaking in the field of sustainable healthcare and has been published in a number of peer-reviewed medical journals, including Nephron International, the Quarterly Journal of Medicine and Haemodialysis International.

Sustainable Kidney Care Course

This foundation course explores the bi-directional relationship between health and the environment, with a focus on kidney care. The climate crisis poses a threat to human health and current models of healthcare contribute to climate change and ecological destruction. Reducing the financial and environmental impact of services and improving their social value while ensuring a high standard of care is essential for making healthcare services sustainable. 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. 

Learn more about the course

Sustainable Kidney Care Network

Hosted by CSH, the Sustainable Kidney Care Network brings together patients, clinicians, renal technicians and others to share ideas for sustainable kidney care.

Join the network