The new medical guidelines on Sickle Cell are a step forward

Diane Abbott MP Shadow Public health Minister and Chair of the All Party Group on Sickle Cell  welcomed the new NICE (The National Institute for Clinical Excellence) guidelines on this condition which were published today.

She said:
“Sickle Cell is the commonest inherited blood disease. And these new guidelines represent a big step forward for thousands sickle cell sufferers and their families. This is a serious and often incredibly painful condition. But for too long it has been marginalised. Sufferers that turned up at Accident and Emergency or GP’s surgeries often met ignorance and poor treatment. Some people even died as a result like 21-year-old Sarah Mulenga, from Barking in East London, who died in January 2011 from a Sickle Cell crisis after paramedics refused to take her to a hospital.
 
Now NICE has finally recognised that the painful episodes associated with Sickle Cell are an acute medical emergency and should be treated as such.
The new guidelines will standardise care and mean that people experiencing Sickle Cell  crises should receive pain relief within 30 minutes and be treated by staff who have had proper training in the issues related to Sickle Cell.

I hope that as a result of these new guidelines sickle cell sufferers will get prompt and appropriate treatment and there will be no more unnecessary deaths”

--ENDS—

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