Sickle Cell & Thalassaemia

Welcome to the Sickle Cell and Thalassaemia Centre (SCaT). The service is located on the first floor of the main City Hospital building, opposite ward D15.

Some members of the team.

The unit is a day-case treatment centre providing care for patients with Sickle Cell Disease and Thalassaemia and their families and friends. Some appointments are booked; but we are largely a walk-in service. We have three beds, two consultation rooms and an open area with four reclining chairs.

City Hospital is also home to the West Midlands Adult Haemoglobinopathy Network which was established in 2016. The aim of the network is to bring about improved and standardised care of sickle cell anaemia and thalassaemia patients living within the West Midlands area.
It also aims to bring more cohesion between the multi-disciplinary teams of professionals involved in the care of patients, promote patient/family involvement, recognise and support community/voluntary sector’s contribution to overall care/support of patients in the region.
It brings together services for adult patients with inherited blood disorders that affect haemoglobin from hospitals across the region and consists of:

Nationally recognised, Birmingham has the highest concentration of haemoglobin disorders (sickle cell anaemia and thalassaemia) outside of London.

Haemoglobinopathy is defined as any haematological disorder due to alteration in the genetically determined molecular structure of haemoglobin, resulting in conditions such as Sickle Cell Anaemia and Thalassemia.

Services

The SCaT centre is a regional service providing:

Day case pain management for sickle cell patients in acute sickle cell painful crisis
Regular blood transfusions for Thalassaemia patients and support with chelation therapy
Some blood transfusions for sickle cell patients
Outreach support for all our patients when they are in-patients
Medical and Nurse-led reviews
Consultant led out-patient clinics
Apheresis in conjunction with the National Blood Transfusion Service
Joint endocrine and orthopaedic clinics

Other Services

The Sickle Cell and Thalassaemia Centre works very closely with the Community Haemoglobinopathy Nursing Team, the Birmingham Children’s Hospital Haemoglobinopathy Unit, the Voluntary Sector (OSCAR Birmingham, OSCAR Sandwell and the Sickle Cell Cares Wolverhampton) and our own hospital’s wider multi-disciplinary team.

We run joint endocrine clinics and joint orthopaedic clinics quarterly. We work closely with the leg ulcer nurses and the diabetes/endocrine nurses.
Apheresis is provided in conjunction with the National Blood Transfusion Service.

For more information see:

Patient Information

We would like to welcome young patients into our adult service. We have two patient information leaflets below which tell you what to expect. There is also a video which takes you on a quick tour of the SCAT ward, which is based at City Hospital. As you can see we are all very welcoming!

A virtual tour: