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More than 330,000 Australians are living with diabetes and kidney disease including around 10,000 people who are living with kidney failure who require dialysis or a kidney transplant to stay alive.

But most diabetes-related kidney disease is preventable if detected early but currently hundreds of thousands of people are missing out on vital checks that would support early treatment when it is most effective.

At the moment, kidney checks are too complex and time consuming. We need to make it easy for people to get kidney checks when they need them.

That’s why Diabetes Australia is calling for a Diabetes Kidney Disease Screening Program to raise awareness of the checks and make them more convenient. This would help Australians living with diabetes get the checks they need to prevent kidney failure.

For the Screening Program to be successful it needs to work for Australians living with diabetes. That’s why we’d love to hear from you to help us spark change. Do you have regular kidney checks? If not, why not? What would make it easier for you to get your kidneys checked within recommended timeframes. The best solutions for people living with diabetes are the ones that are co-designed with people living with diabetes.

“You can’t reverse heart or kidney disease but you can help prevent it if it is detected early. That’s why screening is so important and why I want to spark change on diabetes-related kidney screening.” 

~ Joseph, lives with type 1 diabetes