Transplant First

Improving access to kidney transplantation

Transplant First is a national quality improvement programme focused on improving access to kidney transplantation and the experience of care for transplant recipients and donors.

First developed in the West Midlands in 2016, the programme has supported kidney services in regions across England to identify barriers within transplant pathways, develop and test local improvements and share learning more widely.

Why Transplant First?

For people who are suitable for transplantation, receiving a kidney transplant before dialysis is needed can offer the best clinical outcomes and patient experience. However, there is significant variation in access to transplant assessment, waiting-list activation and living kidney donation.

The reasons for this variation differ between services and regions. Transplant First has supported kidney teams to use local data and quality improvement to understand barriers within their own pathways and develop changes that respond to local needs.

Transplant First in practice

Transplant First has supported quality improvement work in kidney services across England, with projects addressing different barriers and stages of the transplant pathway.

This has included work to improve transplant education, living kidney donation, referral and assessment, transplant work-up, pre-emptive listing and collaboration between referring and transplanting centres. The approaches tested and learning from individual projects are brought together in the Transplant First Knowledge Hub.