Thank you for celebrating 75 years with us
As 2025 draws to a close, we would like to reflect on the wonderful work that has been showcased as part of the UK Kidney Association’s 75th anniversary. We have seen videos of a ‘day in the life’ of many of the healthcare professionals who are involved in looking after kidney patients. We have also heard about the history of kidney care in the UK and showcased the work that our specialist interest groups and committees are doing today.
Building on the fantastic legacy from the original British Renal Society and the Renal Association, it is amazing to see where we have come from and how much progress has been made. We would like to thank all our members for the hard work that they do to improve how our members can work and thus improve patient care.
We are looking forward to many more years of the UKKA representing all kidney healthcare professionals and seeing the developments of the world-class UKRR and RaDaR databases. In 2025, we welcomed new groups into the UKKA, such as the Renal Managers Group, and we look forward to welcoming the renal technologists in the coming months. We have started an ethics committee, an in-centre haemodialysis group and most recently, have formed a GN specialist interest group - we look forward to these groups developing. We have watched the development of KQIP projects, looking at advanced kidney care, home therapies and making transplant first a reality. We have worked with our networks and communities of practice to bring together innovative work on integrated CKD.
We have worked seamlessly with our charity partners around the World Health Organisation’s work on the adoption of a proposal to include kidney disease as a non-communicable disease priority area, with this resolution passing in May in Geneva.
Looking forward to the next 12 months, we have many exciting projects to come. 2026 sees the start of a new cohort joining our leadership course with representation across multiple professions. This group will not only learn the theory of leadership but will also have a chance to apply the learning by leading on a UKKA project. Please look out for the continued work that the UKKA are doing around workforce with the recent publication of the MPT workforce document (and one for the medical workforce to follow). We have submitted data to the government’s 10-year workforce plan on behalf of all our professional groups, and we are working on a kidney strategy with our patient charities.
Thank you to all of you who signed the letter to the government with the aim of including kidney disease in the government’s 10-year health plan - the letter with over 13,000 signatures was handed into Downing Street in October. The new kidney strategy project will encompass kidney care in all four UK nations, will look at adults and children, and will be co-designed by those living with kidney disease and their families. There is also the hope that this can be utilised if we are successful in enabling a Kidney Modern Service Framework, so look out for a series of ‘listening events’ which will be happening early 2026 (February to April) to get involved and have your say. Planning for the Harrogate UK Kidney Week 2026 conference is in full swing, with a broad programme and a fantastic chance to meet in person to swap ideas and celebrate progress.
We would like to end by thanking you all for incredible work this year – we have too many projects to mention them all in this short piece, but each project and every contribution make the UKKA what it is.
We wish you all a very happy festive season, and we hope you enjoy the celebrations and have some time off for family and friends over the holiday period.