Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that healthcare professionals in (a) emergency, (b) general and (c) wards receive adequate training related to sickle cell disorder.

Working under the UK Rare Diseases Framework, the Government is committed to improving the lives of those living with rare diseases, such as sickle cell disorder. This framework sets out four priorities collaboratively developed with the rare disease community, which include increasing awareness of rare diseases among healthcare professionals.

NHS England has launched several activities to improve staff knowledge and training aimed at healthcare professionals, including developing the ACT NOW campaign to improve awareness of frontline staff of what to do when people attend hospital in a sickle cell crisis, providing support to specialist staff for sickle cell and thalassemia through the Haemoglobinopathy Coordinating Centre network, and developing free e-learning to help staff, including those in accident and emergency, haematology, and ambulance services, to identify signs of a sickle cell crisis. Further information on the ACT NOW campaign is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/london/a-c-t-n-o-w-sickle-cell-acronym-pilot/

NHS England is working with clinicians and people with sickle cell disorder in Manchester to understand how to help people to better manage their disorder. The learning from this pilot will be shared nationally, to support others to embed a similar approach to care, that reflects the needs of their local populations.