Homerton: Sickle cell service

GP information

Sickle cell service

Sickle cell disease is the most common serious inherited condition in the UK. There are about approximately 12,500 people who suffer from this disease in the England and an estimated 240,000 carriers of sickle cell in England.

Being a carrier means that you do not have the sickle cell disease itself and will be generally healthy. In Homerton Hospital, we have approximately 600 patients, ranging from 17 year-old upwards.

What is sickle cell disease?

Sickle cell disease is an inherited blood disorder that affects red blood cells. People with sickle cell disease have red blood cells that contain mostly haemoglobin* S, an abnormal type of haemoglobin. Sometimes these red blood cells become sickle-shaped (crescent shaped) and have difficulty passing through small blood vessels.

This causes severe anaemia, intense pain-particularly in their hands, arms, legs and lower back- damage to major organs and infections.

Episodes of pain and other symptoms are often called ‘crises’. A crisis is usually what will cause a patient to come into hospital.

Services available

We provide care for adult patients with sickle cell conditions.

These include:

drop-in service
multidisciplinary management of sickle cell
specialist laboratory diagnostic services
in-patients management of sickle cell
modern, evidence-based management including the use of blood transfusions and hydroxycarbamide together with a vaccination service.

Clinic and location

Sickle cell clinic is held at the outpatient department every Tuesday morning while drop-in service is held at Medical day unit, Monday to Thursday from 9am -5pm and Fridays from 8am -4pm.

Outside these hours, patients can go to accident and emergency department.

Referrals

Registered sickle cell patients can self-refer to the drop-in service in the medical day unit. Newly diagnosed patients will be referred by their GPs or internal hospital consultant to the sickle cell consultant.

We also receive referrals from other hospitals who have registered paediatric sickle cell patients transiting to adulthood who live in our catchment area.