ISN Joins the European Roundtable Discussion on Tackling Inequities in Kidney Care
As a member of the European Kidney Health Alliance (EKHA), the ISN was pleased to take part in the roundtable, “What Role for the EU in Tackling Inequities in Kidney Care?” hosted by the EKHA at the European Parliament in Brussels on November 30. Vladimir Tesar, ISN Council and Executive Committee member, was there to represent the ISN.
Organized in collaboration with the Czech Society of Nephrology against the backdrop of the Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union, the event brought high-level stakeholders together to discuss inequities in access to kidney transplantation and dialysis in Europe and identify policies to benefit kidney patients.
MEPs Kateřina Konečná, member of the Special Committee on the COVID-19 pandemic, and Ondřej Knotek, co-chair of the MEP Group for Kidney Health, urged for more attention to kidney disease within the European institutions. MEP Knotek commented, “There is a problem of awareness; MEPs voting on health issues need to know more about kidney disease.”
The meeting also shed light on the critical state of kidney care during emergencies, with a presentation from Dmytro Ivanov, president of the Ukrainian Association of Nephrologists.
The difficulties kidney patients face accessing medicine and dialysis in some European countries were also discussed. The secretary of the European Kidney Patients’ Federation, Jan van Cruchten, encouraged European institutions to work together to address this long-standing issue by creating “a medical program to give patients the right to get the medicine and treatment they need in all EU countries.”
With momentum building at the EU level, the ISN will continue to work alongside EKHA and other partners to help develop forward-looking policy solutions to improve the lives of people suffering from kidney disease in Europe and further afield.
