GPs’ inability to detect kidney disease puts thousands of people at risk for dialysis because it is diagnosed too late to benefit from treatments that could save their lives

Thousands of patients with chronic kidney disease are diagnosed too late to benefit from treatments that could save their lives.

Failure to test for the incurable condition means that almost two-thirds of all patients are not diagnosed until the disease has progressed to a dangerously advanced stage.

This was despite doctors knowing that almost half of all new patients were at risk of kidney disease – which affects 7.2 million people in Britain.

Experts say thousands of patients are needlessly undergoing dialysis as a result – a blood-purifying treatment that requires multiple hospital visits every week, with each session lasting hours.

Hundreds will also eventually need a kidney transplant when the organ eventually fails, often having to wait several years for the procedure.

The surprising findings, published by the charity Kidney Research UK, come at a time when the NHS is facing a looming kidney disease crisis.

Over the next decade, the number of patients with kidney disease is expected to increase by approximately 400,000, mainly due to obesity.

By 2033, the condition is likely to cost the NHS more than £10 billion a year – up from £6 billion last year.

This is largely due to the high cost of financing blood purifying dialysis treatment for approximately 140,000 of the most seriously ill patients.

Kidney Research UK says the worrying number of late diagnoses is increasing the severity of the crisis and causing ‘irreversible and major harm to patients’.

One patient diagnosed too late is Stephen Blom, a former cyclist who now has to undergo dialysis in hospital three mornings a week while awaiting his second kidney transplant.

The 45-year-old from Paisley is angry that doctors were too slow to diagnose him despite his telltale symptoms.

The oil industry worker regularly trained for cycling races in the Alps and could cover 160 kilometers in four hours. However, over time he noticed his performance declining.

He said: ‘I had all these unexplained symptoms: ear infections, colds that wouldn’t go away, flu, very low energy levels. It took a while.

‘When the doctors checked my blood, they told me I had high blood pressure and high cholesterol – which I now know are two of the main risk factors for kidney failure.

“But instead of treating me for kidney disease, they said I wasn’t taking good care of myself.”

A year later, Stephen was referred for a kidney scan, which showed that the organ was seriously damaged.

Within months he started dialysis, but in 2015 he was forced to undergo surgery to receive a new kidney.

This kidney is now failing and Stephen is desperate for a second transplant.

“With an earlier diagnosis I could have started treatment that would have dramatically slowed the progression of the disease,” says Stephen.

“That’s where the anger comes in.”

Chronic kidney disease occurs when the kidneys – which remove waste products from the blood and produce urine – no longer work as well as they should.

It usually gets worse over time and the damage cannot be reversed.

Patients usually experience few symptoms at first, but as the disease progresses they may experience fatigue, shortness of breath, swollen ankles, feet or hands, and blood in the urine.

High blood pressure and diabetes are common causes, as are kidney infections and long-term use of anti-inflammatory medications.

If diagnosed early, exercise and a healthy diet can help slow the progression of kidney disease, as can medications for high blood pressure and diabetes.

Specialist treatments, including a daily tablet called empagliflozin, a relatively new drug, can dramatically reduce the risk of progression.

In the worst cases, patients need dialysis to do the job of the failing kidneys – while 3,600 adults in Britain receive a kidney transplant every year.

Earlier this year, The Mail on Sunday revealed that thousands of patients with kidney disease did not even know they had the condition because their GP had not told them.

We also reported that patients with heart disease and diabetes were not warned that they were at risk of developing the irreversible disease.

Experts claimed patients were not informed of their diagnosis, based on ‘outdated’ views that there were no effective treatments to slow its progression.

Kidney Research UK says it is crucial that GPs look for early signs of the disease.

“Newly recommended drugs can slow the progression of kidney disease, but not only are too few suitable patients being offered them, many patients are also missing out on valuable time to protect their kidneys due to late diagnosis,” said Alison Railton, head of policy and external affairs at Kidney Research UK.

‘The results of our research alarmingly show that patients suffer unnecessarily from the late diagnosis.’