Review of London kidney teams’ response to COVID-19
March-June 2020
Introduction
More than 180 people came together on July 1st 2020 via MS Teams to review the response of renal teams across London to the first surge of COVID-19 pandemic in the UK. Attendees included patients, doctors, nurses, allied health professionals, commissioners and managers.
This is a summary report which should be read in conjunction with slides from the day and other national guidance.
Broad themes
The day recognised the unprecedented burden of work placed on kidney teams and their fantastic response. There was collaboration both across multi-professional, multidisciplinary renal teams and in conjunction with other teams, notably in intensive care.
A persistent theme was the struggle to provide consistent high quality patient information, advice, counselling, and consent in the context of marked uncertainty and rapidly changing national guidance. Much discussion revolved around ways of using our combined expertise and capacity to provide better, more consistent information for patients.
Equity of access and outcome was another recurrent theme. We know that the impact on BAME groups (both patients and staff) was disproportionately high. The role of social deprivation was highlighted.
The benefits of collaboration and the opportunities around data sharing and analysis, joint approaches to training, sharing of ideas and resources were common positive refrains.
Next steps
The report does not make definitive recommendations for action but highlights the outcomes of discussions held on the day. Within each theme a number of next steps have been identified which should be considered and developed further by the stakeholders in the London renal networks.
