P186
LAUNCHING A QUALITY IMPROVEMENT DEVELOPMENT GROUP FOR
KIDNEY CARE
Gallagher H1,2, Loud F2 Tomson C3, Wilkie M4, on behalf of the QI Development Group
for Kidney Care.
1
SW Thames Renal Unit, St. Helier Hospital, Surrey; 2Kidney Health Team; 3Southmead
Hospital, North Bristol NHS Trust; 4Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
The kidney community in the UK has a strong tradition of research activity. To deliver care that
is safe, effective, efficient and equitable, the uptake of research findings and best practice into
routine clinical practice is also required. The results of research and audit should be used to
identify targets for quality improvement (QI), and close the gap between what we know and
what we do. Quality improvement activities themselves should be supported by an evidence
base demonstrating approaches to specific problems that can be used widely by many teams in
different settings. Where interventions have been implemented, lasting change to health
services will only occur where these are spread and sustained.
We are therefore launching a Quality Improvement Development Group at Kidney Week 2014
to help drive the QI agenda in kidney disease and meet the ambitions for kidney care outlined in
the Kidney Health Delivering Excellence report.
The group, which will include strong patient and multiprofessional representation, will be
initiated by Kidney Research UK in conjunction with the Kidney Health Team, linking with
NHS England and the UK Kidney Research Consortium Clinical Study Groups. We will
engage broadly with the kidney community and with improvement organisations to provide a
home for QI initiatives and serve as a resource for all who are interested in renal improvement
work.
The group aims to support changes to practice that improve care for patients through:
 Identifying priorities for quality improvement
 Generating ideas for quality improvement activity
 Convening a broader network, open to all interested parties, over the next 3-6 months
 Helping to develop and, with appropriate external funding, test specific quality
improvement interventions, wherever possible harnessing the use of existing data
resources
Kidney patient and professional organisations working together have recently described many
possible targets for better care. In the short-term our intention is to focus on selected
interventions that have already been locally implemented with the support of the Health
Foundation, with a view to extending more widely through a network approach, and evaluating
the impact. Going forward we propose to examine areas for quality improvement that can be
supported by the current and future data strategy of the UK Renal Registry.