Raising Awareness of Kidney Health in the EU
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) affects 10% of Europeans and is on the rise in pace with the alarming increase in diabetes and heart disease in Europe. European kidney health stakeholders saw an urgent need for improved awareness, prevention strategies, early detection, education and management of CKD, to deal with the issue.
Interel worked with the European Kidney Health Alliance, to raise awareness of kidney health amongst key health policy decision makers in the EU. The campaign was a great success, resulting in the establishment of a dedicated budget line of €1 Million per year for kidney health, organ donation and transplantation in the General Budget of the EU for 2015.
 The European Kidney Health Alliance (EKHA) is a unique collaboration of all stakeholders in kidney health including physicians, patients, researchers and nurses, working together in pursuit of common goals. EKHA aims to reduce the incidence and impact of kidney disease and to find solutions for improving access to care and kidney transplantation across the EU.
Despite the problem costing around 4% of national healthcare budgets throughout Europe, awareness and prevention was relatively low amongst health policy makers. To address this shortfall, in the last 3 years Interel set out to strengthen and grow the alliance and consolidate its key asks for a European strategy for prevention, harmonisation of standards of care across Europe, and increased action to promote organ donation and transplantation.
In addition, Interel stimulated the formation of the MEP Group for Kidney Health, the secretariat of which is run by EKHA, to engage MEPs in this call to action. The MEP Group for Kidney Health gains visibility by hosting EKHA’s annual EU Kidney Forum in the European Parliament each spring around World Kidney Day.
One of the notable successes of this campaign was the establishment of a dedicated budget line for kidney health, organ donation and transplantation in the General Budget of the EU for 2015.
The amendment to create this new funding instrument was tabled in the European Parliament by the prominent Chair of the MEP Group for Kidney Health and supported by an intensive outreach programme on behalf of EKHA to build parliamentary supported for new funding. The amendment was approved and included in the General Budget. Thus, in 2015-2017, 1 Million EUR per year will be dedicated to a pilot project in Member States to look at the effect of differing kidney disease treatment modalities, and organ donation and transplantation practices on health expenditure and patient outcomes, and will result in recommendations for best practice and harmonised care in Europe.
In addition to securing EU funds dedicated to the pilot project on kidney care, EKHA has pre-empted results by launching the EKHA Recommendations for Sustainable Kidney Care in Europe.
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“With Interel's professional support EKHA has grown exponentially, in visibility, importance and effectiveness. Not only would our advocacy efforts have been less effective without Interel's constant professional advice and action, but also challenges in the group have been overcome thanks to the guidance and experience, of the people within Interel who are supporting us (Sara Martin and Isabel De Castro).” Monica Fontana Faughnan, EKHA Board Member.
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