May 15, 2020: The purpose of this guideline is to maximise the safety of adults with chronic kidney disease during the COVID-19 pandemic.
It also aims to protect staff from infection and enable services to make the best use of NHS resources.
NICE has also produced COVID-19 rapid guidelines on dialysis service delivery and acute kidney injury in hospital.
This guideline focuses on what you need to stop or start doing during the pandemic. Follow the usual professional guidelines, standards and laws (including those on equalities, safeguarding, communication and mental capacity), as described in making decisions using NICE guidelines.
This guideline is for:
- health and care practitioners
- health and care staff involved in planning and delivering services
- commissioners.
The recommendations bring together:
- existing national and international guidance and policies
- advice from specialists working in the NHS from across the UK. These include people with expertise and experience of treating patients with chronic kidney disease during the current COVID-19 pandemic.
NICE has developed these recommendations in direct response to the rapidly evolving situation and so could not follow the standard process for guidance development. The guideline has been developed using the interim process and methods for developing rapid guidelines on COVID-19. The recommendations are based on evidence and expert opinion and have been verified as far as possible. We will review and update the recommendations as the knowledge base and expert experience develops.”
