MEDICS and patients have joined forces to demand a “Scotland-wide focus” from the government on chronic kidney disease (CKD) in a national plan of action.

A working group, led by charity Kidney Research UK, launched a 19-point plan yesterday to support the estimated 600,000 people in Scotland living with the condition.

The paper includes calls for greater monitoring of at-risk groups, more support for primary care staff in diagnosis and management, and ensuring patients can access specialist emotional, practical and digital support.

The launch of the action plan comes 20 years after campaigners’ first calls for one were “ignored” by the then Labour health secretary, a decision one clinician said had affected “tens of thousands of people.”

Professor Jeremy Hughes, chairman of the working group, said: “It is possible to build a better future for people with CKD and this action plan shows the government how this can be achieved.

“This investment is vital to avoid the looming nightmare of thousands more people requiring exhausting, expensive dialysis, as predictions based on existing data show.

“Embedding and prioritising CKD in government and public health policy is the only way forward.”

Professor Hughes said that in the early years of the new Scottish Parliament, patients and eminent colleagues asked for CKD to be made a priority by the then government.

“Tens of thousands of people have been affected by the decision to ignore that advice,” he said.

“Now is the time for a new Scotland-wide focus on CKD.”

SNP public health minister Jenni Minto said: “The Scottish government welcomes the new action plan and will consider its recommendations carefully.

“We have also implemented a Scotland-wide policy to reimburse home dialysis patients for the extra electricity costs incurred in their treatment.”