Kidney disease: policy context
This section outlines the policy context relevant to acute kidney injury (AKI) and chronic kidney disease (CKD) in Scotland.
Strategies
A Donation and Transplantation Plan for Scotland 2021-2026 was published in 2021 and looks at the strategy for kidney donation and transplantation.* In January 2024 the Scottish Government and Kidney Care UK published information about a national policy to reimburse the electricity costs of home dialysis. The Scottish Government also announced new partnership with industry and academia to accelerate research into treating chronic kidney disease in July 2024.
Guidelines, standards and quality improvement work
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) publish guidelines for kidney conditions, including peritoneal dialysis, managing anaemia and hyperphosphataemia (excess phosphate in the blood) in kidney disease.
- Clinical guidelines for the prevention, detection and management of AKI have been published by NICE as NICE Guideline NG148 (first published 2018, last updated September 2023).
- Clinical guidelines for the management of CKD were published in 2021 as NICE Guideline NG203.
The UK Kidney Association (formerly the Renal Association) have also published guidelines for kidney conditions. Clinical practice guidelines have been developed by Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) on a range of issues related to kidney disease.
The European Renal Best Practice Transplantation Guideline Development Group have published clinical practice guidelines on the management and evaluation of the kidney donor and recipient (900Kb), alongside other publications looking at best practices in treating kidney diseases.
