New unit saves 100-mile journey for blood patients
PATIENTS with two inherited blood disorders no longer have to travel more than 100 miles to London to receive pioneering treatment after the introduction of a new service at Birmingham’s City Hospital.
Both sickle cell and thalassaemia are inherited conditions affecting the red blood cells of patients mainly from African, Caribbean, Middle Eastern, Mediterranean and Asian backgrounds.
Now the Sandwell and City Hospitals in collaboration with NHS Blood and Transplant and the West Midlands Specialist Commissioners, has launched the regional specialist centre for haemoglobinopathy offering patients a complete blood transfusion.
The procedure removes all of the patient’s abnormally shaped red blood cells and replaces them with donated blood using a technique called apheresis. Patients have received more than 500 units of blood since the service started.
Chief executive the hospital trust Toby Lewis said: “These issues matter to our patients and it is fantastic that we are able to improve local special- ised services in the heart of Birmingham and the Black Country.”
The treatment relies on blood donors and people from the same ethnic background are more likely to be a match.
Ian Trenholm, chief executive at NHS Blood and Transplant said: “We really do need more black and Asian blood donors to meet the needs of patients.
“Many people think that blood is only needed in an accident or emergency situation but people with Sickle Cell Disease often need blood transfusions on a regular basis just to stay alive.”
There are more than 15,000 people with sickle cell and 2000 with Thalassaemia in the UK. One of these is Mohammad Farooq.
He said: “For a Thalassaemia Major patient the Sickle Cell and Thalassaemia Unit is a life line. A modern onestop facility with specialist and highly experienced doctors and nurses.
“It is the NHS at its best, and allows me and my fellow patients to continue our daily lives with minimum disruption, and, therefore, be able to contribute to society.”