About

The National Haemoglobinopathy Panel (NHP)

The National Haemoglobinopathy Panel (NHP) was commissioned, in October 2019, as part of a new model of care to support access to specialist services and clinical expertise, aiming to provide equitable access across the country. The establishment became operational in January 2020.

The Panel is made up of a multidisciplinary group of Health Care Providers and the primary role is to host the national Multidisciplinary Team meeting (MDT), providing expert advice to complex cases within Haemoglobinopathies (Sickle Cell Disorder and Thalassaemia) and Rare Inherited Anaemias.

About

Actualise the aims of NHS

The NHP is a means to actualise the aims of NHS England/Improvement within the realm of Haemoglobinopathies, be it through supporting new therapy initiatives, impacting policy and guidelines, providing a national perspective via activity/case data, being an information conduit between NHS England and other core NHP network members, or via programmes such as the NHP Transcranial Doppler (TCD) Quality Assurance programme, working with the National Haemoglobinopathy Register (NHR) and MDSAS. The NHP Cellular Therapy subgroup lends expert advice, advocacy, and monitoring for the approval and treatment processes of haemoglobinopathy transplantation and cellular therapy centres nationwide.

Our Panel

Dr Kate Gardner

NHP Chair

Biography

Dr Gardner commenced the NHP Chair role in January 2025.

Dr Gardner is a Consultant Haematologist at Guys and St Thomas' Hospital and obtained her PhD in the genomics of sickle cell disease at King's College London. She has…

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Professor John Porter

NHP Deputy Chair

Biography

John Porter is Professor of Haematology and Consultant Haematologist at the University College London Hospitals in London, UK and head of the joint Red Cell Unit for UCLH and Whittington Hospitals. His clinical and research focus has been of thalassaemia…

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Professor David Rees

NHP Paediatric Sickle Cell Disorder Lead

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Image: Dr John Brewin, Sickle Cell Disorder, Paediatric Deputy Lead

Dr John Brewin

NHP Deputy Paediatric Sickle Cell Disorder Lead

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Dr Sanne Lugthart

NHP Adult Sickle Cell Disorder Lead

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Dr Nandini Sadasivam

NHP Adult Thalassaemia Lead

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Dr Noémi Roy

NHP Rare Inherited Anaemia Led/NHR Chair

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Professor Josu de la Fuente

NHP Paediatric Cellular Therapy Lead

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Dr Ben Carpenter, Adult Cellular Therapy Lead

Dr Ben Carpenter

NHP Adult Sickle Cell Disorder Lead

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Dr Soundrie Padayachee

NHP TCD Quality Assurance Lead

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Dr Sara Trompeter

NHP Transfusion/NHSBT Lead

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Objectives

The NHP Multidisciplinary Team (MDT), with membership drawn from Haemoglobinopathies Coordinating Centres (HCC) across the nation, has four main objectives:

Consistency

Drive the delivery of a nationally consistent approach to care envisaged by the Clinical Reference Group and approved by commissioners.

Harmonisation

Coordinate the actions taken at Specialist Haemoglobinopathies Teams (SHT) and Haemoglobinopathies Coordinating Centres (HCC) levels to deliver access to specialist oversight and to reduce unwarranted variation.

Expertise

Provide SHT and HCC access to national expert clinical opinion with regard to the treatment of complex patients .

Innovation

Support the introduction of commissioned innovative therapies by acting as a national panel to consider individual patients most able to benefit and to enable patients to have access to these therapies, irrespective of where they live.

NHP Organisational Structure and Wider Network

The strength of the NHP is the strong network which binds the members within, including the HCCs, as well as the strategic bonds it holds with other stakeholders within the haemoglobinopathies community, such as patient representation groups (Sickle Cell Society & UK Thalassaemia Society), Nursing Groups (STANMAP-Sickle Cell & Thalassaemia Association of Nurses, Midwives and Allied Professionals) and close engagement with organisations such as the UK Forum on Haemoglobin Disorders (UKFHD) and the Sickle Cell and Thalassaemia All-Party Parliamentary Group (SCT APPG). These are to name a few.

NHP CTG

The NHP also has a subgroup, the Cellular Therapy Operational Group (CTG), which is key in carrying out key functions of rolling out, monitoring and improving high-cost cellular therapies, currently stem cell transplantation and gene therapy, for haemoglobinopathies.

Learn more on the CTG here.



About
About

NHP Wider Network

Our HCCs

The NHP is made up of experts from all the HCCs (Haemoglobinopathies Coordinating Centres) that oversee services in all regions across the nation. While separate organisations, there is a symbiotic relationship based on aligned objectives. There are 10 Sickle Cell Disorder HCCs and 4 Thalassaemia HCCs. Each HCC oversees a number of Haemoglobinopathy teams of varying resource. Further information is available from NHS England.

Sickle Cell Disorder HCCs

Haemoglobinopathies Coordinating Centres Host Trust Website Email
North West Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust link -
North East and Yorkshire Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in partnership with Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust link sth.neyhcc@nhs.net
East Midlands University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust link uho-tr.emstn-hcc@nhs.net
West Midlands Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, and sub-contracting to Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospital link -
East London and Essex Barts Health NHS Trust link -
South East London and South East King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in partnership with Guys and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust link kch-tr.selsehccadmin@nhs.net
West London Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in partnership with London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust and St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust link imperial.WLHCCinfo@nhs.net
North Central London and East Anglia University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in partnership with Whittington Health NHS Trust and North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust link uclh.info.redcellnetworkhcc@nhs.net
Wessex and Thames Valley Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust link WTV.HCC@ouh.nhs.uk
South West University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust link HaemoglobinopathyBristol@uhbw.nhs.uk

Thalassaemia (& Rare Inherited Anaemia) HCCs

Haemoglobinopathies Coordinating Centres Host Trust Website Email
North Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust link
Midlands Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, and sub-contracting to Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospital. link uho-tr.emstn-hcc@nhs.net
London and South East Barts Health NHS Trust link
London, South Central and South West University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in collaboration with Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust. link uclh.info.redcellnetworkhcc@nhs.net

Patient Representative Groups

Other Affiliates

Terms of reference

The guiding terms of reference for the NHP are currently being reviewed and will be updated on this site in due course.

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