Kidney disease: A UK public health emergency
We commissioned an independent report into the economic impact of kidney disease in the UK.
Scroll down to view the dashboard for your area or click the buttons to read the report.
Dashboard for your area
Use the interactive dashboards to view the scale of kidney disease across the UK and the key statistics for your area.
Urgent action is needed
The report sets out key findings and proposed interventions.
Kidney disease is a public health emergency that threatens to overwhelm the NHS
- Kidney disease is costing the UK economy £7 billion a year, costs which could rise to £13.9 billion in just ten years
- Growing numbers of people are at risk of kidney disease due to increased cases of diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and obesity
- Significant government action is needed to implement four healthcare interventions that could save 10,000 lives in the UK by 2033
Proposed healthcare interventions
- Earlier and improved diagnosis, targeting under-served populations through outreach programmes to improve screening opportunities and increase early diagnosis
- Improved management of chronic kidney disease for patients who are either untreated or not receiving standard care according to clinical guidelines (e.g. adequate blood pressure management)
- Greater use of new medications such as SGLT-2 inhibitors – which has been shown to slow down progression to kidney failure and reduce the risk of heart attacks and heart failure.
- Increased rates of transplantation, specifically pre-emptive transplants that would prevent people needing dialysis. This intervention would be cost saving for the NHS.
Decisions made by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) about whether the NHS should fund treatments are based on a cost effectiveness model. NICE guides refer to a threshold of £20,000-£30,000 per quality adjusted life year (QALY) - a commonly used measure in health economic evaluations to quantify the effect of a medical intervention or prevention programme.
An update to the report - new appendix
We published our report, Kidney Disease: A UK public health emergency in June 2023. Later that year, a new drug was recommended for kidney patients and this has led us to review what impact these changes might have.
In December 2023, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), issued guidance recommending a new treatment for patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) called empagliflozin, a type of drug called an SGLT2-inhibitor, which has been shown to slow down progression to kidney failure and reduce the risk of heart attacks and heart failure.
NICE has recommended that it is made available to patients who are either at CKD stages 3b-4 (down to 20 ml/min/1.73m2), or are between earlier CKD stages 2-3a and either have a urine albumin to creatine ratio (UACR) of 22.6mg/mmol or have type 2 diabetes. It is to be given to these patients in addition to their other specific treatments (either angiotensin-converting enzyme [ACE] inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blockers).
This recommendation has increased the number of people now eligible for an SGLT2 inhibitor by 100,000.
In response to this change, this new appendix to our original report uses modelling to set out what the projected impact on the patient population may be by 2033, if the prescribing guidelines are followed.
While the model estimates that direct costs could increase by £78m by 2033, our modelling and the NICE technology assessment suggest that the use of SGLT-2is in the expanded population is cost-effective. The increase in direct costs is partially offset by £24m in indirect cost savings due to fewer patients on dialysis and requiring support such as transport to in-centre dialysis
This new modelling represents an addition to the main report and does not replace the numbers originally presented. But, rather, provides a view of the potential positive impact for more patients of access to an SGLT2 inhibitor, and Kidney Research UK anticipates this update will be of most interest to clinicians and researchers, and those working in the planning and commissioning of CKD care pathways.
Read about our policy work
New draft guidance recommends treatment for more adults with high potassium and chronic kidney disease
