The UK Kidney Association is the leading professional body for the UK kidney community.
We welcome members working in clinical kidney care, treating and caring for people with kidney disease, those working in research, or related sciences and fields and all allied healthcare professionals.
For 74 years, the Renal Association, now the UK Kidney Association, has been energetic in promoting and sharing research to improve outcomes for people with kidney disease. We have taken a lead in the education of clinicians and scientists and more recently we’ve evolved to take a major role in training doctors and developing clinical services.
We are transforming how kidney care and research are delivered in the UK and beyond. The work we deliver and fund to support our members and kidney patients is wide-ranging and includes:
As a membership organisation, we aim to reflect the views of our members in all our activities.
We have over 1,900 professional members working together to deliver:
- Leadership and professional advice to facilitate and help develop the best possible services for people with kidney disease
- Research - we support the delivery of all aspects of kidney research and encourage a thriving research community to share and develop knowledge
- Education and training – we nurture the professional development of clinicians and researchers in the kidney community
- Registry audit and quality improvement – we make data work hard through the Renal Registry to drive improvement
- Patient involvement – we work in partnership with patients, carers and other organisations to promote patient engagement and involvement in their own healthcare
- Guidelines – we produce evidence-based clinical practice guidelines to drive excellence.
The UK Kidney Association (UKKA) is a new organisation created to support the whole multi-professional team (MPT) in the delivery of kidney care, education and research - enabling people to live well with kidney disease.
The new organisation brought together, into one membership organisation, the extensive history of the Renal Association, the work of the UK Renal Registry, and the multi-professional focus of the British Renal Society and its affiliates.
After two years of engagement and discussions between the Renal Association and the British Renal Society, an overwhelming majority of the kidney community supported this merger to form the UK Kidney Association. The transition reflected the evolving needs of the wider community and the centrality of multi-professional working in kidney care.
The UK Kidney Association now supports the entire professional kidney community in the delivery of kidney care, through education, training, research, quality improvement, service and workforce development.
Stronger together
Many past achievements have come through joint initiatives including the joint UK Kidney Conference (UK Kidney Week), The Kidney Quality Improvement Initiative (KQIP), patient safety, patient information and comprehensive COVID-19 support. The merger offered major benefits for members including economies of scale, opportunities for workforce modernisation and coordination to be realised and creation of high-achieving speciality interest groups (SIGs) in major areas of practice.
Working closely together, UKKA delivers a robust, focused and highly integrated approach for the multi-professional kidney team. This facilitates greater support for professional development and education for all members. As a merged Association, UKKA has greater influence across England and the devolved nations on healthcare commissioning, clinical and laboratory research and industry collaborations. The Association is committed to developing external kidney charity stakeholder partnerships.