From this month Acute Kidney Injury Warning Stage Test Results, which are generated when a significant change in creatinine concentration is measured, will start to arrive into general practice on existing IT systems. The change is the result of NHS England’s Safety Alert and detection algorithm, which has been implemented in most path labs’ information management systems across the country.
GPs and practice nurses requesting serum creatinine blood tests will be alerted if there are significant changes for the individual patient. Although these results won’t be many in number ( around 1 alert per whole time GP per month) practices will want to know how to respond to the alert which identifies potential cases of acute kidney injury in real time, producing a test result (AKI stage 1, 2 or 3) alongside the serum creatinine result.
Help is at hand as Think Kidneys has produced a number of useful resources to help members of the primary care team determine appropriate responses to test results. These are all online and can be accessed at https://www.thinkkidneys.nhs.uk/aki/resources/primary-care/ The team would advise all practices to be aware of the change and the help available.
AKI causes harm and suffering for people and can be prevented in many instances. Around two thirds of AKI starts in the community and so GPs and practice nurses, especially those caring for people most at risk of AKI (the elderly and those living with long term conditions), have a major role in prevention and early detection and treatment.