Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 9 November 2021 to Question 62570, on Kidney Diseases: Dialysis Machines, when his Department expects all renal centres to meet the recommendation outlined in the GiRFT report to achieve a 20 per cent minimum home dialysis rate; and what steps his Department plans to take to encourage those centres that have achieved a 20 per cent minimum home dialysis rate to increase that rate.

The Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) speciality report on renal medicine, published September 2021, recommended that all renal centres provide a minimum of 20% of patients with dialysis services at home within 12 months.

NHS England and NHS Improvement’s Renal Services Transformation Plan (RSTP) has established 11 regional clinical networks to meet this recommendation. Of 51 renal centres, 16 units have met or exceeded this minimum level, with several centres achieving more than 30% of patients receiving dialysis at home. NHS England and NHS Improvement have asked renal networks to ensure units continue to develop home therapies and increase levels of dialysis at home. Providers, integrated care systems and regional commissioners will monitor progress via the UK Renal Registry and NHS England Renal datasets.

The GIRFT report set a deadline for all centres to establish the required staffing model by September 2022. NHS England and NHS Improvement are encouraging clinicians and centres to consider the GIRFT recommendations in their work and the individual sites will evaluate how best to implement them.