Join the kidney revolution

Ending Dialysis by 2050 is a visionary aspiration for people affected by kidney disease and the increasing number of Australians at risk of chronic kidney disease. Kidney disease is a growing epidemic in Australia and around the world, projected to be the 5th leading cause of death worldwide by 2050. This is alarming and unacceptable. We need to take a stand now to stem this growing crisis.

In 1990 chronic kidney disease was the 18th leading cause of death worldwide. By 2050, it’s projected to be the 5th leading cause of death. This staggering increase in the impact of kidney disease as a cause of death should be enough for everyone to demand better detection, diagnosis and treatment of kidney disease. Pushing to end dialysis by 2050 is symbolic of the fact that while the disease itself is having an increasingly significant impact on people’s health and lives, treatments and actions to stop its progress have stagnated. Now is the time for real action and change to slow down and stop kidney disease.

Dialysis is an essential life-saving treatment that has kept millions of people alive around the world, but it has barely changed in 50 years. Other treatments develop over time and we hope with this new push we will be able to turn kidney failure treatment into something more innovative and life-enhancing. For many in the kidney community, dialysis takes away their ability to fully participate in family, work and social life. For younger people who have this disease for life, dialysis impacts their ability to fully participate in life activities. We need treatments that give a longer and better quality of life to those living with kidney failure.

We are advocating for the end of dialysis treatment as the norm by 2050. It may be that dialysis treatment is still required for a medical emergency or as a stopgap to transplant or other innovative treatments not yet created.

Our role is to be voice for the kidney community and advocate on their behalf for better support and solutions in the treatment of kidney disease. The management of kidney disease involves a significant number of organisations and individuals across health, government and community. Our aim with this launch is to bring all stakeholders together in support of this aspiration so that together, we can work towards finding the solutions that can achieve this outcome. Only through a collaborative, co-designed and unified approach, can this be done.

We consulted with a number of people living with kidney failure who are on dialysis or now living with a transplant. We also consulted with an extensive number of clinical stakeholders involved in the treatment and management of kidney disease. The overwhelming response was positive to the need to change the status quo. They agree more dramatic action needs to be taken to stop this growing crisis, and that as long as we support the need for more dialysis capacity in the short-term, they support the aim to find better solutions to dialysis treatment in the longer term.

We consulted with a number of people living with kidney failure who are on dialysis or now living with a transplant. We also consulted with an extensive number of clinical stakeholders involved in the treatment and management of kidney disease. The overwhelming response was positive to this aspiration. They agree more dramatic action needs to be taken to stop this growing crisis, and that as long as we support the need for more dialysis capacity in the short-term, they support the aim to find better solutions to dialysis treatment in the longer term.

Our aim with ending dialysis in 2050 is to focus people's efforts on better detection, diagnosis and management of people at earlier stages of kidney disease. With new medications to delay progression and guidance on lifestyle management, halting or significantly delaying progression to kidney failure is already a possibility for the thousands of Australians living with undiagnosed kidney disease. More focus on this in the future will only increase the number of Australians detected and treated earlier.

We are also advocating and pushing for more kidney donors, particularly living donors. Living donations will significantly increase the ability of people to get a pre-emptive transplant as well as offering better outcomes. These strategies are key to being able to phase out dialysis treatment as a standard treatment, as well as pushing for greater investment in research to come up with more innovative solutions - we have already seen some burgeoning ideas such as kidneys created from stem cells and pig transplantation.

Our aim with launching the campaign is to inspire Government and other stakeholders to significantly increase their support and investment in kidney disease and do more to change the status quo.

The vast majority of economic cost is directed towards kidney failure. We need to invest today in early detection to reduce long term costs of dialysis and the associated patient burden.

A continued priority for us is to support people at every stage of their kidney disease journey. In fact, we are focusing even more efforts on improving our support services so that people at earlier stages are on a better path to managing their health and treatment to slow down or halt progression to kidney failure; people on dialysis are better equipped to manage their physical and psychological wellbeing; and, people on transplant get the recovery support they need to resume their way of life quicker. These plans both support the longer-term ambition to End Dialysis by 2050 but also ensures that our current support is optimised to improve health outcomes.

There's many ways you can show your support! It takes a community to start a revolution.
1. Share on social media, with family and friends
2. Let your local parliamentarian know why it's so important to support – Kidney Health Australia can provide you with content to send to your local Politicians.
3. Sign the petition below
4. Donate to the cause to help us achieve this big aspiration