What is EMEESY?

Mission statement

We care for children with all sorts of problems with their kidneys and bladder including complex ones and those needing dialysis and renal transplants. We provide care to children from the East Midlands, East of England and South Yorkshire (Hence, the EMEESY children's kidney network). The main specialist service is at Nottingham Children's Hospital but we believe in seeing children close to home as much as possible and we have links with consultant paediatricians and shared care clinics in local hospitals throughout the region.

Our vision is that in caring for children and young people with kidney disease we aim to:

  • Strive for excellence in the care of all children with acute and chronic renal and urological problems.
  • Embrace a partnership ideal with the families and be sensitive to diversity.
  • Improve and develop all means of communication with children and their carers and ensure meaningful patient and family involvement.
  • Educate all staff and professionals in contact with children with renal problems, including those outside the hospital such as general practitioners, school and nursery staff.
  • Seek to carry out research on clinical care and implement new scientific knowledge to maintain the unit at the leading edge of paediatric renal and urology care

History

The Children's Renal and Urology Unit, now based at Nottingham Children's Hospital, was established in 1985 with the appointment of Professor Alan Watson.  A network of shared-care clinics was established through the East Midlands soon after.  The network grew to encompass shared-care clinics in many local centres throughout the East Midlands, East of England and South Yorkshire (EMEESY). Good informal links have existed and developed between the Nottingham Children's Hospital and local centres throughout EMEESY.

With the support of a grant from the former East Midlands Strategic Health Authority in 2012, several senior staff in Nottingham were seconded part-time to develop a more formal network.  The report from that 5-month secondment can be accessed here.   Since 2014, there have been shared-care clinics in all 20 local hospitals throughout the East Midlands, East of England and South Yorkshire.  The clinics are staffed by a consultant paediatric nephrologist from Nottingham Children's Hospital and in most cases a local consultant paediatrician.  Specialist children's renal nurses and children's renal dietitians from Nottingham Children's Hospital also come to many of the clinics.  

Training events take place every six months.  More information is available on the training pages.

The future?

EMEESY hopes to become a model children's kidney network within NHS England, based on principles that were set out a Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health document published in 2011.  We have based much of the network structure on the Scottish Paediatric Renal and Urology Network (SPRUN).  We have been working with NHS England's Quality Surveillance Team (previously the National Peer Review Programme) to develop a system of peer review for children's kidney services.  

We continue to work to develop a service that provides quality care as close to home as possible, that is underpinned by a robust managerial/governance structure, and that is supported with a multi-professional education framework.  Such a network requires central funding and we are currently working with with specialist commissioners and local providers to ensure that the network costs are embedded within out-patient tariffs or service-level agreements to ensure its sustainability.