Sickle Cell is not a Trial!
The closure of the Sickle Cell Day Unit at the Royal London Hospital threatens patient safety and contradicts national evidence. This specialist unit provides urgent, expert care for people with sickle cell, preventing delays, mismanagement, and avoidable harm.
The 2021 No One’s Listening report highlights systemic failures in non-specialist settings, inadequate training, and chronic underinvestment, calling for strengthened specialist services. Closing the unit would force patients into general Emergency Departments, increasing clinical risk and reversing progress in care. Decision makers should instead prioritise investment in and expansion of specialist sickle cell services.
Bell Ribeiro-Addy calls for a long term solution to sickle cell care in the House of Commons
Sickle cell is not a trial. After a six-month pilot, the emergency sickle cell unit at the Royal London Hospital is due to close at the end of January. This decision risks removing specialist, life-saving care for people experiencing a sickle cell crisis.
Sickle cell crises are medical emergencies. They require fast, knowledgeable, and compassionate treatment from teams who understand the condition. For many patients, this unit has been the difference between being believed and being dismissed, between timely pain relief and prolonged suffering.
Closing this unit will leave patients without the specialist support they rely on during moments of extreme pain and vulnerability.
We are calling on decision-makers to listen to patients, clinicians, and advocates. Healthcare equality means ensuring that people living with sickle cell are not treated as an afterthought.
