Diaverum Scores Government Contracts in UK and Saudi Arabia

Munich, Germany-based Diaverum Ltd., provider of renal care services from preventative care to renal replacement therapies, is expanding services both in the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia. The company was awarded a tender covering four clinics and 350 patients by the U.K.-based University Hospital Birmingham NHS (National Health Services) Foundation Trust. According to the company, this brings the total number of Diaverum UK clinics to 16. In addition, Diaverum has signed a five-year contract to take charge of 50 percent of the dialysis clinics previously under the management of the state in Saudi Arabia.

In the United Kingdom, Diaverum aims to build and equip the new clinics with state of the art medical equipment. Each clinic will have free parking for patients and staff, wireless Internet access, and patient individual free-view televisions. The new clinics will be located nearby the existing clinics in the Birmingham area, meant to ensure a convenient and seamless transfer of patients and staff. The staff already operating the existing clinics will transfer to the new Diaverum clinics, in order to ensure continuity of care for patients.

According to Diaverum, with the clinical responsibility of the patients remaining with the NHS Foundation Trust, the company will continue to work closely with the Trust to investigate opportunities to broaden the healthcare services offered and further improve patient care. In addition to offering hemodialysis treatment, Diaverum will promote self-care and work with the Trust to identify other treatment modalities—for example, introducing nocturnal dialysis.

“Studies have shown that patients who take more involvement in their own care tend to enjoy a better quality of life due to gaining more independence, with improved medical outcomes,” said Diaverum’s U.K. Managing Director Mick Hartnett. “We have seen very positive results in our other clinics for patients participating in some form of self-care, and we look forward to continuing this work in Birmingham.”

Patients will have the opportunity to provide feedback feedback via a short quarterly patient questionnaire, a “patient passport” system and patient educational material, which Diaverum will introduce across the new clinics.

“While the United Kingdom is growing strongly, the senior management remains very close to our clinic operations, and are highly accessible for patients, staff and the referring NHS renal teams,” said Dag Andersson, Diaverum’s CEO and president, of the Diaverum approach. “This means our senior managers have an intimate understanding of customer needs and are thus able to act quickly and decisively to ensure our service always delivers. Working with iWantGreatCare in the UK, is enabling us to use patient feedback to provide the best renal care possible and create a standard of quality.”

Founded in 2008, iWantGreatCare.org is a website that allows the NHS and private health care patients to rate individual general practitioners and hospital physicians on the care they provide.

Over in the Middle East, the Saudi Ministry of Health is partnering with Diaverum to gain access to Diaverum’s expertise in renal care services. As per the contract, Diaverum will invest to develop the nation’s existing infrastructure with a goal to improve medical outcomes and to secure patient satisfaction. After all stages of implementation, Diaverum is expected to run 93 dialysis centers and care for approximately 5,000 patients.

Saudi Arabia is facing a challenging situation in the health care area. The Saudi Healthcare market is one of the fastest growing healthcare markets worldwide, and is estimated to grow on average 8.7 percent per year until 2017, according to a Research and Markets report. Key growth drivers are a growing and aging population and an increase in lifestyle-related diseases. To face the rising demand for healthcare services, especially in one of the most advanced renal care systems in the world today, Saudi’s government is driving private sector participation. Medical quality and strict focus on the patient are key as reimbursement and medical outcome are interrelated.

“Chronic kidney disease needs a holistic and personalized approach to care”, explained Andersson. “Our assignment in Saudi Arabia enables us to share our vast expertise on renal disease. Our future aim to develop integrated care will improve quality of life for renal patients and pioneer the whole approach to renal patient care. Being awarded with this tender means taking another important strategic step in integrated renal patient care.”

Diaverum will offer different treatment modalities and will be responsible for treating both pediatric and adult patients. With the goal to develop an integrated approach to renal care, Diaverum will also offer vascular access services, holiday dialysis and even maintain pharmacies in the clinics.