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A team of dietitians at the Royal Free are celebrating winning an award for an initiative which improved care for kidney patients.
The trust’s renal dietetic team received the British Dietetic Association’s Dame Barbara Clayton Award worth £1,500. It is awarded to individuals, teams or departments with staff who are BDA members and where the dietetic service can demonstrate innovative ways of working.
 The team won the award for developing a protocol to enable renal dietitians to initiate and adjust the dose of phosphate-binding drugs and vitamin D therapy for patients with chronic kidney disease.
This freed up the time of renal consultants and improved compliance with taking medication as dietitians had more time to discuss with patients the importance of the drugs and when to take them.
Kidney patients need to take phosphate-binding drugs as phosphate is not removed from the body effectively by renal dialysis and they require vitamin D therapy as they are often deficient in this vitamin. Both these factors can lead to bone problems.
 Jan Flint, clinical lead renal dietitian, said: “Our new protocol has tailored treatment more closely to the needs of individual patients. The amount of medication is based on the phosphate content of meals. Our dietetic team take a detailed diet history, analyse patients’ eating habits and adjust the dose accordingly.”
Manasi Desai, a renal dietitian who accepted the award for the team, said: “This award is a fantastic recognition of our work. This was truly a team effort and all those involved are over the moon.
“We feel this project has really benefited our patients’ experience by providing a consistent approach to bone management in kidney failure and the response from our patients has been very positive.”
Notes to editors
1. For further information, contact Soraya Madell, on 020 7830 2963 or soraya.madell@royalfree.nhs.uk
2. Our services have been rated “excellent” for the third year running, most recently by the Care Quality Commission. We are renowned for our specialist services including liver, kidney and bone marrow transplantation, clinical neurosciences, renal, AIDS/HIV, infectious diseases, plastic surgery, immunology, vascular surgery, ENT surgery and audiological medicine, amyloidosis and scleroderma and are a member of the academic health science partnership UCL Partners. For further information, visit www.royalfree.nhs.uk
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