Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is one of the most serious, yet least recognized, public health challenges facing Canadians today. This progressive, life-threatening condition currently affects 1 in 10 Canadians. The scope of this crisis is likely much larger due to low awareness and a lack of access to early detection. This issue demands immediate national attention, especially as the number of Canadians living with CKD is projected to exceed 6.2 million by 2050.
CKD affects over 4 million Canadians, compared to roughly 3.7 million living with diabetes, making it more prevalent across Canada’s population. However, the Public Health Agency of Canada does not formally recognize kidney disease as a chronic disease. This gap in national prioritization is directly impacting health outcomes and straining our health care system.
The Human and Financial Impact of CKD
The lack of coordinated government action is taking a staggering human and financial toll. Over 49,000 Canadians live with kidney failure, requiring life-sustaining treatments like dialysis or transplantation.
Consider Kate, a 25-year-old working professional living with ongoing headaches and high blood pressure. Her condition was misdiagnosed as migraines, until one day she landed in an emergency room, where her blood pressure was found to be dangerously high and her kidneys were failing. She was suddenly faced with the uncertainty of how the coming weeks, months and years would unfold, and the impact of her diagnosis on her quality of life, her career, and her hopes of starting a family. Kate’s story is not unique; she is one of the 42% of patients under the age of 65 whose lives are abruptly interrupted because they were diagnosed too late.1
Furthermore, kidney disease accounts for 71% of the national organ transplant waitlist, highlighting a systemic failure in prevention.
CKD is currently the 11th leading cause of death in Canada and is responsible for over $40 billion in annual health care costs. The treatment for advanced kidney failure, particularly in-centre dialysis, approaches $100,000 per patient annually, positioning it among the costliest diseases in modern medicine.
There is no cure for kidney disease, but early detection and timely intervention can significantly slow disease progression, save lives, and drastically reduce the need for costly kidney failure treatments.
A Roadmap for Change: The Call for a National CKD Framework
Governments across Canada, including the Government of Canada, need to have a strategy to address chronic kidney disease. To support government action to ensure a strategy is in place and to address these critical disparities in awareness, prevention, diagnosis, and care access, The Kidney Foundation of Canada is developing a national strategic Framework. This Framework will be Canada’s first comprehensive, evidence-based roadmap designed to transform kidney health outcomes across the country – and one that governments can use to inform policy, planning, and decision-making.
The Framework is being developed through extensive collaboration with patients, clinicians, researchers, and provincial health policymakers. It advocates for a coordinated national approach that reverses current trends and builds a modern, equitable, and resilient kidney care system rooted in three urgent national strategic priorities:
- Prioritize Prevention, Early Detection, and Timely Intervention: Moving beyond treating failure to actively mitigating risk factors like diabetes and hypertension, and ensuring systematic screening allows Canadians to be diagnosed before irreversible damage occurs.
- Ensure Equitable Access to Kidney Care for All Canadians: Addressing systemic barriers by expanding culturally competent, multidisciplinary care, including increasing access to new treatments and medicines, especially in the early stages of the disease.
- Advance Research & Data for Better Kidney Health: Investing in innovative research and leveraging existing data infrastructure to strengthen evidence-based decision-making and ensure that new discoveries are rapidly translated into patient practice across all jurisdictions.
Canada needs a national CKD Framework to ensure that kidney health receives urgent and sustained attention from governments and health systems. To learn more and join the call to action, visit kidney.ca/national-framework
