Advanced Kidney Care Clinic

You may have only just been diagnosed with Kidney Disease  (CKD) through to having had a slow decline in their function for many years. Whichever you case, if your doctor (nephrologist) believes that your are one of the unfortunate small percentage of sufferers who is likely to experience established kidney failure (CKD stage 5) then they will, at the appropriate point in time, refer you to the Advanced Kidney Care (AKC) Clinic.

The Advance Kidney Care Clinic is held twice per week. The Wednesday morning clinic is multidisciplinary with a Consultant, a Specialist Registrar (a rotational post), 2 specialist nurses and a dietitian (rotation post). The Friday morning clinic is with one of the Specialist nurses only. Your appointments are likely to vary between these two clinics.  You are likely to also need appointments in the anaemia clinic.

The purpose of the AKC clinics are to:

1. Monitor your renal function,
2. Give advice on any life style changes/medications to reduce the rate of your decline   
3. Help you make a decision regarding your future treatment options and
4. Plan a timely and appropriate start of dialysis or transplantation.

The Advance Kidney Care Clinic also runs a programme of activities to help renal patients with diminishing kidney function understand the treatment options and support available to them should they approach established kidney failure.

The activities include seminars covering:

• Education about the function of the kidneys
• Treatment options including dialysis
• Transplantation and live organ donor
• Social worker support
• Clinical psychologist support
• Patient experience testimonials
• Other support available

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