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September is Sickle Cell Awareness Month

September 6, 2023

The Sickle Cell and Thalassaemia unit (known as SCaT) is a day-case treatment centre providing care for patients with Sickle Cell Disease and Thalassaemia. Some appointments are booked; but we are largely a walk-in service.

The SCaT centre is a regional service providing:

  • Day case pain management for sickle cell patients in acute sickle cell crisis.
  • Some blood transfusions for sickle cell and thalassaemia patients.
  • Outreach support for all our patients when they are in-patients.
  • Medical and Nurse-led clinics
  • Apheresis in conjunction with the National Blood Transfusion Service
  • Joint endocrine, renal and orthopaedic clinics

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a serious, inherited condition affecting the blood and various organs in the body. It affects the red blood cells, causing episodes of ‘sickling’, which produce episodes of pain and other symptoms. In between episodes of sickling, people with SCD are normally well. Long-term complications can occur. Good treatment, started early in life, can prevent complications. So, early diagnosis and specialist treatment are advised for SCD.

In the UK, about 15000 people have SCD. It is more common in people whose family origins are African, African-Caribbean or (less commonly in the UK) Asian or Mediterranean.

Birmingham has the highest concentration of patients living with sickle cell outside of London.  Across Sandwell and Birmingham we care for over 600 patients living with sickle cell disease and a further 200 patients across the West Midlands region.