‘Full-blown crisis’: emergency national kidney summit called
Treatments being rationed and a rise in cases have prompted Kidney Health Australia to call for immediate action to address what it says is a growing crisis.
An emergency meeting of health leaders has laid the groundwork for a new approach to detecting and treating kidney disease, with hopes genuine change will follow.
Kidney Health Australia hosted the meeting in Sydney on Friday to discuss what it said was an escalating kidney disease crisis that was so severe, health services were nearing “breaking point”.
The meeting resulted in an initial five-step plan, which will be further developed over the next two to three months before a final report and recommendations are presented to the government in early 2026.
The goal is to improve the early detection of kidney disease so well that nobody requires dialysis by 2050.
“We had an absolutely robust discussion about solving the emergency in kidney health,” said Breonny Robson, the general manager of clinical research with Kidney Health Australia.
“A lot of the discussion was about how we can leverage technology like new testing and even AI to better identify people at risk.”
Attendees agreed Australia needed to get better at testing for kidney disease and part of the plan is likely to include an awareness campaign.
Ms Robson said a new suite of therapies for kidney disease was offering patients hope that hasn’t been seen in years.
“There are treatments now on our PBS listed for kidney disease that can slow the progression of the disease by 15 years or more,” she said.
“We haven’t had those before. They’ve sort of come out in the last little while and there’s more being listed all the time; the pipeline is really quite exciting.
“There’s now a really tangible reason for people to go and get a kidney health check at their GP, get diagnosed early, and get on these treatments that can slow down their disease.”
The rise in cases is being driven by an ageing population, other chronic diseases including diabetes and high blood pressure, and ironically patients living longer because of better treatment options.
Kidney Health Australia says dialysis services are at capacity in regions such as western Sydney, and healthcare teams are already rationing life-sustaining treatments.
“Some services around the country are under so much pressure they’re having to offer patients dialysis only two times a week instead of three times a week. For some patients the only time that they’re able to get their treatment is overnight,” Ms Robson said.
Missing treatments can be risky and cause fluid overload, high potassium, and high phosphorus levels in the body which can lead to severe health problems including heart attack and stroke.
The scarcity of services has been getting worse for years, especially in remote Indigenous and lower socio-economic communities, and it shows no signs of easing. It’s prompted the group to convene the Emergency National Kidney Summit where it called for urgent action to address the issue.
“Kidney disease is no longer an emerging problem. It is a full-blown crisis that demands immediate national action,” said Chris Forbes, Kidney Health Australia CEO.
The Summit heard from health leaders including NSW Health Secretary Susan Pearce, who delivered a keynote address. Former commonwealth chief medical officer Professor Brendan Murphy, who is also a Kidney Health Australia board member, also advised the group.
Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows kidney disease is on the rise with 14.2 per cent of adults having indicators of chronic kidney disease, up from 10.8 per cent a decade ago.
About 2.7 million Australians have some form of kidney disease and almost 16,000 people receive regular dialysis. About 1000 kidney transplants are performed in Australia every year. Kidney Health Australia expects that to grow by 42 per cent by 2030.
Ms Robson said of the 2.7 million people living with chronic kidney disease, an estimated 2.5 million of them do not realise they even have it.
“You can lose 90 per cent of your kidney function before you start to feel sick,” she warned.
“So people are not going into their GP saying ‘I feel sick, can I get a test for kidney disease?” That’s what the summit is about; we’re pulling all of these different stakeholders together to say, what can we do to change this?”
Chronic kidney disease is a gradual loss of kidney function, which affects their ability to filter blood and leads to a build-up of waste and fluid inside the body. It can lead to high blood pressure, heart disease and anaemia.
In August, the Therapeutic Goods Administration announced it had approved the clinical use of Ozempic for reducing the risk of kidney disease progression in patients facing both Type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease.
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