More resources for kidney disease patients

  • Jonathan Coleman
Health

Health Minister Jonathan Coleman has today launched new video resources aimed at increasing the awareness and understanding of kidney disease.

“It is fitting that today on World Kidney Day we are highlighting kidney disease as it affects around 200,000 New Zealanders,” says Dr Coleman.

The eight new Kidney Health New Zealand videos launched today feature patients talking about their experience of kidney disease. They deliver a lot of important technical information in an easy to understand format.

“Some cases of chronic kidney disease are preventable. Early intervention is the best chance of avoiding end stage kidney disease where people are dependent on dialysis or a kidney transplant,” says Dr Coleman.

“To help support this preventative approach, the Ministry of Health is also developing a new IT resource to help GPs and nurses better identify and manage patients with chronic kidney disease.

“The new IT resource for general practice will do a range of things including scanning test results to identify whether a patient is at risk of chronic kidney disease and provide advice on what is required to manage the patient.

“It will also highlight when a patient has impaired kidney function that could be made worse by certain medications, or has high blood pressure brought on by chronic kidney disease that could lead to heart disease.”

Following a successful trial in the South Island, the new IT resource will be rolled out in the coming months.

In 2014, around 550 new patients began dialysis. In the same year 138 New Zealanders received a kidney transplant, up from 113 in 2013.

Budget 2014 allocated $4 million over four years to set up a National Renal Transplant Service to increase the number of live kidney donor transplantations.

Last year’s funding increase builds on the $4 million invested in Budget 2012 to raise awareness and encourage more people to donate organs.

The new kidney disease videos launched today can be viewed on the Kidney Health NZ website, www.kidneys.co.nz.