Latest News – New Year, New Structure

Welcome to our latest newsletter

We have lots to update you on this time, following a gap since our last newsletter.  We welcome some new team members and say good bye and thank you to others. We share our priorities for this year, and details of who to contact if you have questions. We talk about how the Renal Transformation Programme (affectionately known as the 3Ps programme) is progressing, and invite you to join our upcoming learning and sharing event. And finally, there’s opportunity to sign up to be a Sustainability Champion with the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare.

New year, New Structure

Over the last three years, the LKN has successfully delivered a significant amount of work.  This has only been possible because of the excellent leadership of expert and committed clinical leaders working alongside the LKN programme team, and of course through workstream and expert advisory group members.  Thank you to everyone who’s been a part of the LKN story so far. After three, and in some cases four, years of work, it was the right time to look at our priorities, methods for delivery,  successes, and spaces for improvement .

After reflecting on how what had been achieved and what else needed to be a priority, we agreed some changes in work focus.  We reviewed the clinical leadership roles and made changes to the role specification to support the new delivery priorities.  

Our priorities for the next three years are:

• • Chronic Kidney Disease/Cardio-renal-metabolic Prevention (CKD/CRM)
  • Advanced Kidney Care (AKC)
  • Demand and Capacity Planning
  • Dialysis (including vascular assess)
  • Transplant
  • Supportive Care
  • Workforce
  • Psycho-social and rehabilitation
  • Data

Thank-yous

We’d like to take this opportunity to say an enormous thank- you to the clinical leads who’ve worked with us over the last three years and have now left our team. They have been fundamental to our progress and to enabling us to make changes to improve the lives and treatments of kidney patients in London, now and in the future.  We’re pleased to say many are choosing to stay on the workstream groups and so will remain a key part of the LKN work.

Thank you to: Kieran McCafferty, Lisa Silas, Sapna Shah, Ismail Mohammed, Joyce Popoola, Deepa Kariyawasam, Gavin Dreyer, Ravi Rajakariar.

We also need to say thank you and goodbye to two LKN Programme team members: Rahika Lakshman, Project co-ordinator, and Sarah Harwood, Patient Partnership Involvement Lead.

Welcome!

Our Leadership team for 2025 onwards are:

• • Clinical Director – Rob Elias
  • CKD/CRM – Andrew Frankel
  • AKC – Heather Brown
  • Dialysis – Richard Corbett and Suzanne Forbes with Ben Lindsey for VA
  • Transplant – Marie Condon
  • Supportive Care – Heather Brown, Dave Evans, Katie Vinen
  • Workforce – Donna Morgan
  • Psychosocial and Rehabilitation – Katie Durman
  • Data- Darren Duffield

We look forward to working hard with them, and you, to keep delivering improvements to kidney services in London.

If you would like to find out more about the priority work areas, please contact the LKN Programme Team (see below)

For Demand and Capacity, Transplant, and Psychosocial and rehabilitation, contact Nicola Cunningham, Senior Programme Manager nicola.cunningham14@nhs.net 

For CKD/CRM Prevention, AKC, and Supportive Care, contact Linda Tarm, Senior Project Manager linda.tarm2@nhs.net 

For Dialysis, and Workforce, contact Mariza Procopio, Project Manager mariza.procopio@nhs.net

For Data, contact Peter Wilson, Data Manager peter.wilson11@nhs.nwt 

Renal Transformation Programme

The Renal Transformation Programme, or 3Ps programme, is now in its third year and the 30 projects that fall within its umbrella across all London ICS’ are showing the impact of this £15m investment.  Projects from raising awareness of CKD  in local football clubs and schools, to providing weight loss interventions to enable transplants, and helping frail, elderly people to make the right treatment decisions for them, are making a clear difference to people affected by kidney disease across London.  

You can see an example of one project, and the impact it’s had on Francine in South East London, here
Integrated neighbourhood working: multi-morbidity model of care – Francine’s story

To find out more about the projects in each ICS, and how services are being transformed, join us for an all-day event at the Royal College of Nurses on Monday 21 July.  We’ll hear about the national context for the need for change, and examples of the best of the projects for each ICS.  There will be posters of each project, and workshops in the afternoon to give time to get into the details of how the projects have delivered and pitfalls and successes. 

If you’d like to join us, please sign up here https://buytickets.at/londonkidneynetwork

Places are limited, so please only sign up if you can attend, and if your situation changes, please remember to cancel your place in advance. 

The LKN Renal 3Ps Transformation Programme Learning and Sharing Event has been funded through sponsorship by Boehringer Ingelheim Ltd. Boehringer Ingelheim Ltd have had no input or influence into the arrangements, creation of the content or selection of delegate or faculty members associated with this programme, except for a sponsored slot on the agenda.

Sustainable Kidney Care Project

Green nephrology is something we try to consider in all our work and we’ve been asked to share the opportunity to become a Sustainability Champion for the  National Sustainable Kidney Project. Find out more, below.

“Kidney care is one of the most resource-intensive specialities in healthcare, making it a key focus for achieving sustainability goals. This project aims to provide a benchmarking framework for sustainable kidney care best practice and disseminate it throughout the UK’s kidney networks through our kidney centre champions. This framework will then track and measure progress, whilst also encouraging implementation of more sustainable kidney care. 

The long-term goal of this project is to embed sustainable practices throughout the kidney care pathway, demonstrating how speciality care can contribute to the Greener NHS’s net zero goals by reducing resource intensity and fostering a culture of sustainable practice, while delivering the best outcomes for our patients. 

The opportunity 

Drawing from analysis of case studies created in 2009-12 through CSH’s Green Nephrology programme, CSH estimates that scaling 20 proven green innovations across UK kidney centres could achieve annual savings of:  

• • £7 million in costs,  
  • 11,000 tonnes of CO2e, and  
  • 470 million litres of water.  

By becoming a Sustainability Champion, healthcare professionals can lead quality improvement initiatives and gain opportunities for skill development, networking, and collaboration with patients and multidisciplinary teams to co-create sustainable solutions. The whole of the MDT are welcome!

Find out more and sign up to be a sustainability champion here!”

Sustainable Kidney Care Project — Sustainable Healthcare

And finally