AKI implications within hospitals

The direct annual economic burden of AKI to the NHS is estimated at £1.2 billion, which consumes over 1% of the total NHS budget just covering immediate inpatient care (Kerr et al., 2014; Daisley, 2025). This is more than what is spent on skin, lung, and breast cancer combined (NIHR, 2024). To add to that, there’s also a direct overarching effect of AKI on the healthcare system as the total economic burden of kidney disease is £7Billion annually.—And, this escalates the annual economic burden of AKI to roughly £3.13Billion (45% of the £7Billion) stemming directly from AKI complications due to the broader societal and long-term effect (Kidney Research UK, 2023).

Also, a significant portion of the remaining multi-billion pound long-term dialysis burden is a direct structural byproduct of poorly managed or unprevented AKI (Kidney Research UK, 2023), as an episode of AKI frequently causes permanent damage that progresses into severe critical kidney disease (CKD) (Kidney Research UK, 2023).

Evidence of the desperate need for innovation is apparent as, in 2021, the problematic recurrences led to the Care Quality Commission ordering hospitals to improve FBC maintenance due to frequent inaccuracies (Ely, 2021). In fact, addressing hydration related challenges such as improving urine-output monitoring can decrease unnecessary pressures on the healthcare system and prevent up to 40,000 avoidable deaths annually (Health Europa, 2021). This is why, early-detection which oliguria provides, triggering timely medical intervention is key in reducing complications and preventing deaths (NICE, 2019). The current flawed urine-output monitoring approach significantly contributes to the NHS’s AKI treatment expense of roughly £3.13Billion annually (NICE, 2023).

Our Technology and Impact

Inpatients should be as comfortable as possible while under care in a hospital ward and nurses are overextended on shifts. We can’t expect them to work any harder, however, with technology, we can help them work smarter. This is why Flush-Tech is maturing its technology into a TBS. Our prototype currently has a working algorithm proof-of-concept demonstrating the measurement capability. The next stage is to translate this into a robust engineering prototype and to validate the technology under progressively more realistic conditions. By adopting Flush-Tech’s TBS, oliguria within hospital inpatients may be swiftly identified, triggering timely medical interventions to help prevent AKI in hospital inpatients.

We hope to positively impact millions of inpatients, while in tandem saving the NHS hundreds of millions of pounds. Conservatively speaking, if the TBS helps avoid only 10% of hospital acquired AKI, it will save the NHS £313 Million+ annually in direct costs stemming from AKI.