The Manchester Sickle Cell & Thalassaemia Service is a person-centred service that delivers sensitive quality care to all service users with Sickle Cell & Thalassaemia, as well as support and guidance for their family and carers. It is primarily based from the Manchester Sickle Cell & Thalassaemia Centre on Oxford Road.

Amongst the services we offer are antenatal/prenatal genetic counselling, screening and support, education, health promotion & advocacy.

We help anyone with Sickle Cell & Thalassaemia and support care for screening during pregnancy, through birth, into childhood and as adults. We are a non-emergency service but will refer emergency cases of disorder clients to the acute (hospital) team.

The service aims to support people with the disorders with their health and wellbeing. We do this through education on self-care for people with Sickle Cell & Thalassaemia. We provide Sickle Cell & Thalassaemia Screening as well as health assessments for people with the disorders. Patients are involved in developing their individualised care plans to support their self-management and knowledge of their condition so they can manage it where possible.

Our services are run from the centre but we also provide home visits and other services in the community. Our service is free and confidential, and we aim to provide the very best information to support informed choice. Interpreters are provided as required.

The team at the centre carry out outreach work in the community, promoting wider awareness of the disorder and we also play a key role in health education. This includes teaching student nurses, midwives and other health professionals about Haemoglobinopathies so there is a good awareness of the disorders and people with Sickle Cell & Thalassaemia are supported in all parts of the health and care system.

The team at the centre team consists of Specialist Haemoglobinopathy Nurse Counsellors, Midwives, Paediatric Homecare Practitioners and Psychologists. We also have an excellent administration team.

We also work as a multi-disciplinary team with different professionals from across the hospitals and other services our patients might use. This includes Consultant Haematologists (doctors) in Adults & Paediatrics, Clinical Nurse Specialists in Adults & Paediatrics, Obstetricians, Clinical Scientists in Haematology & Genetics and Social Workers.

By working together we can better plan the care and support that we provide to people.

People can self-refer to the service. You can do that in person or by phone, post or email. Medical professionals can also refer to us.

We try to action all referrals in a timely manner and have a short waiting list (around three weeks), but priority is given to antenatal women/couples needing support or screening, newborn referrals and children and adults with urgent issues due to the disorder.

Contact information

If visiting the centre there are 2-hour parking bays on Denmark Road. The centre is just across the road from the main Oxford Road Hospital Campus (Manchester Royal Infirmary) so there is hospital parking at the Grafton Street car park, or the Hathersage Road car park which are both about 5 minutes walk away.

The centre is also very well served by bus transport to the hospitals and Oxford Road with stops just opposite the centre.

Useful Links

We work closely with local and national organisations that provide support and advice to people with Sickle Cell & Thalassaemia.

Local organisations providing specific support include:

• Sickle Cell Care Manchester – sicklecellcaremanchester.co.uk
• Caribbean & African Health Network – cahn.org.uk

National and international sources of information include:

• Sickle Cell Society – sicklecellsociety.org
• UK Thalassaemia Society – ukts.org
• Thalassaemia International Federation- thalassaemia.org.cy

Other useful websites that can help patients and carers with general information and advice include:

• Citizens Advice Bureau – manchestercab.org
• Manchester Carers Forum – manchestercarersforum.org.uk