Funding for the Spectra Optia® Apheresis System devices have been distributed to 22 NHS trusts, including University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust.  

The Trust will use the funding to support enhancements to its current apheresis service, to improve access to patients with sickle cell disease in the South West region, which in turn will help tackle inequalities in healthcare access and health outcomes amongst people with sickle cell disease. 

Sickle cell disease disproportionately impacts people from West African and Afro-Caribbean communities, and patients also often live in the most socio-economically deprived areas and are at higher risk of both re-admissions and in-hospital mortality.   

Sickle cell patients often find themselves in and out of hospitals, enduring severe pain and requiring regular ‘top-up’ blood transfusions.   

Automating red blood cell exchanges can help reduce the necessity for top-up transfusions, effectively manage pain, and lower the risk of experiencing a crisis. Eligible patients can receive treatment every six to eight weeks.  

In the South West, the Spectra Optia device is one of the low cost technologies supported through NHS England’s MedTech Funding Mandate and recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). 

Health Innovation South West is delivering the MedTech Funding Mandate in South West England and is supporting University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust to improve its current apheresis service using the funding. 

As part of our role in driving the adoption of this innovative technology under the MedTech Funding Mandate, we have worked in collaboration with the South West NHS blood transfusion service, the South West-commissioned Haemoglobinopathy Coordinating Centre as well as local haematologists to understand the challenges with equity of access across the South West, to establish the need to expand existing apheresis services, over and above the existing service.