Patients who live with chronic kidney disease are benefiting from improved care  thanks to an award-winning initiative set up by Bradford healthcare professionals.

The Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) electronic advice service provides GPs with timely specialist advice through the sharing of electronic patient records with St Luke’s hospital consultant, Dr John Stoves.

The team was awarded first prize at the 2011 British Journal of Renal Medicine Innovation Awards for the successful introduction of this new approach to delivering renal care.

Dr John Stoves, Consultant in Nephrology and General Medicine from Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, who was involved in setting up the new service with local GPs across the city, said:

"I am delighted that our efforts to forge stronger links between primary and secondary teams in Bradford, in particular through sharing of electronic patient records, have been recognised in this way. We have demonstrated that record sharing allows timely, safe and effective virtual review of patients with mild-to-moderate chronic kidney disease in the community.

“In addition to giving electronic advice to GP colleagues, the Bradford renal team is now better able to manage its dialysis and kidney transplant patients by accessing primary care electronic patient records to facilitate medicines reconciliation and streamlining of shared care pathways such as anaemia management, hepatitis vaccination and coordination of palliative care services. We have presented our positive experience of record sharing to colleagues in nephrology and other chronic disease specialties, both regionally and nationally, and received invaluable support from Yorkshire and the Humber SHA and NHS Kidney Care.

“A summary of our work in Bradford has been published in NHS Evidence and we hope that teams across the country will now be encouraged to adopt this innovative approach to delivering care for patients that is not only safe and effective but also much closer to home.

Dr John Connolly, clinical lead for technology at NHS Bradford and Airedale, said:

“We are encouraged that the Renal Medicine community have recognised the potential to improve the care of chronic kidney disease patients by sharing clinical records across organisational boundaries, allowing hospital-based specialists to provide expert advice to primary-care clinicians who would otherwise have to transfer the patient into hospital care.

“We believe that this model can improve efficiency and patient-experience in a range of long term conditions and that the same technology can be used to improve communication between clinical teams by ensuring that clinical data is always available when and where it is needed.

“Patients expect us to keep them informed and involved and to exploit technology-enabled solutions which improve their journeys in the NHS.

“We hope that this innovation award will encourage the many clinicians who have shown enthusiasm to emulate the model in their own specialties so that more patients can benefit.”