Early CKD Resources

Boehringer Ingelheim has provided funding towards this education, training, and mentorship programme. Boehringer Ingelheim has had no editorial input into or influence on the agenda or content of the programme, including any supporting materials, and has not been involved in the selection of speakers, trainers, or mentors.
overview
Project overview
  • E-Learning courses
  • Primary care CKD quick reference guide
  • Early CKD quality improvement knowledge hub
  • Meeting recordings

Date of preparation: February 2026

E-Learning for primary care

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) affects around 1 in 10 UK adults and is associated with substantially increased risks of cardiovascular disease, kidney failure, and premature mortality. Preventing CKD, detecting it early, and managing it well helps people live longer, healthier lives while reducing long-term system impact.

Most people with or at risk of CKD are managed entirely in primary care. Our suite of courses is tailored to different professional roles, providing the knowledge and practical tools to help each audience best support patients across the CKD pathway.

CKD for Primary Care: Supporting people with CKD

A practical course for nurses and non-registered healthcare staff supporting people with chronic kidney disease in primary care and community settings.

The course focuses on understanding CKD, making sense of kidney tests (eGFR and urine ACR), and explaining why monitoring and treatment matter — even when people feel well. It covers how kidney, heart, and metabolic conditions are linked, why CKD progresses differently, and when concerns should be escalated.

You’ll gain confidence in supporting patients, reinforcing consistent messages, and working within the wider care team.

CKD for Primary Care: Prescriber Foundations

A focused, action-oriented course for busy clinicians who want clear guidance on what to do in everyday practice.

This course delivers step-by-step, evidence-based prescribing and medicines optimisation for CKD from prevention through referral, with an emphasis on reducing cardiovascular risk, slowing kidney decline, and managing complications safely.

You’ll leave with practical treatment pathways, prescribing priorities, and clinical next steps you can apply immediately.

CKD for Primary Care: A Special Interest in Kidney Health

A comprehensive course for clinicians who want to deepen their understanding of chronic kidney disease and strengthen their clinical reasoning in everyday practice.

This course builds on practical prescribing and medicines optimisation, adding deeper explanations of kidney physiology and how CKD interacts with cardiovascular and metabolic disease. You’ll explore why specific interventions matter, how CKD progresses differently between individuals, and how earlier, more consistent management can change long-term outcomes.

You’ll develop a stronger understanding of CKD and cardio-kidney-metabolic pathways, and how treatment decisions translate into kidney protection, reduced cardiovascular risk, and safer ongoing care.

Primary Care CKD Quick Reference Guide

This quick reference guide summarises key points from the CKD learning, supporting rapid recall in day-to-day practice. It also signposts to further resources for more detail and supporting evidence.

Download our CKD quick reference guide

Early and Integrated CKD Knowledge Hub

The Knowledge Hub brings together everything you need to get started with an early and integrated CKD project:

  • A single home for early CKD improvement work: bringing together role-specific e-learning, a quick reference guide, national data dashboards, and a UK-wide QI project map, so primary care teams, kidney specialists, commissioners, and system leaders can find what they need in one place.
  • The Hub is built to support earlier diagnosis, risk stratification, and medicines optimisation, helping teams reduce unwarranted variation and tackle health inequalities.
  • Connects practice to evidence by signposting to CVD PREVENT indicators, guidelines (NICE, UKKA, KDIGO), recordings from knowledge-exchange events, and other quality improvement resources, while showcasing integrated CKD quality improvement work from across the devolved nations and linking teams running similar projects so they can learn from one another's experience.
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Meeting recordings

This section brings together recordings from workshops, webinars, and knowledge-exchange meetings delivered as part of the Early CKD programme. These sessions focus on commissioning, system leadership, and practical implementation of early CKD identification and management in primary care, supporting shared learning and across ICBs, PCNs, and kidney teams.

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Southampton

Dorset and Hampshire and Isle of Wight

The Big Kidney Conversation:
Improving early diagnosis of kidney disease in rural and coastal communities
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Birmingham

Birmingham, Black Country, and Solihull

Coming soon...
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Leeds

West Yorkshire

Coming soon...
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Bristol

Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire, and Gloucestershire 

Coming soon...

Data dashboards and QI project map

The CKD National Insight Dashboard brings together routinely available data to support quality improvement in early and integrated CKD care in England, from detection and monitoring to treatment with kidney-protective therapies. It allows users to explore variation at national, regional, ICB, and PCN level, helping identify opportunities for improvement and track progress over time. 

Alongside the dashboard, we are developing a UK-wide project map to showcase and connect integrated CKD projects, KFRE laboratory implementation initiatives, and CKD education projects.

Together, these tools are intended to support shared learning, spread good practice, and strengthen collaboration across the CKD community.