Racism in NHS services is harming people with sickle cell disease, MPs say.
There are “serious failings” in the care of patients that in some cases lead to avoidable deaths, according to a report by the all-party parliamentary group on sickle cell and thalassaemia.
About 15,000 people in the UK have the condition, which occurs when the body produces unusually shaped red blood cells, which can cause clumping and blockages in small blood vessels. Patients have severe pain and may need hospital treatment for crises several times a year. It mostly affects people of African or Caribbean backgrounds.
Specialist haematology departments are of a good standard but the report said: “This is far from the case on general wards or when accessing accident & emergency departments.” It added: “This sub-standard care has led many patients to fear accessing secondary care, or even outright avoid attending hospitals.” One patient said he had “been called the ‘n word’ to my face”.
In 2019 Evan Nathan Smith, 21, died in North Middlesex University Hospital after a sickle cell crisis. An inquest found that he would have survived were it not for failures in his care.
