Our work

Our strengths

King’s Health Partners Haematology is a world leader in rare blood diseases and unique in the UK for having an infrastructure that harnesses collaboration between academic and clinical experts to produce new tests and treatments in gene and cellular therapy. Each year we provide care for more than 20,000 patients and serve a diverse regional network of more than eight million people.

King’s Health Partners Haematology has the largest myeloid (a type of blood cells in bone marrow) practice in Europe and an internationally renowned service for myelodysplastic syndrome (a group of disorders resulting from poorly formed or dysfunctional blood cells). We have the largest adult transplantation programme for blood stem cell and marrow transplants in the UK and are a national lead for both haemophilia (an inherited disorder in which the blood does not clot) and thrombosis (the formation or presence of a blood clot in a blood vessel). We also house the largest UK centre caring for patients with sickle cell disease and have the largest trial portfolio in the UK for the condition. Our work on understanding age-related clonal haemopoiesis (a blood cell condition that can pose several health risks) through our King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, King’s College London and Bristol-Myers Squibb partnership is world leading. 

We are one of the largest chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CART-T) centres in Europe offering autologous (transplants from the same person who will receive the transplant) and allogeneic (transplants from a person other than the patient) CAR-T therapy to patients with Lymphoma, B-ALL and myeloma. These are genetically engineered cells used in immunotherapy treatment (a treatment which can start an immune response against a disease or boost the immune system in a general way).

Our Institute is currently focusing on a number of key projects:

Mind & Body

For many people suffering with blood diseases, the effects on their mental health can be as significant as the physical ones. That is why ensuring physical and mental healthcare are integrated for those with blood disease is one of our main areas of focus. We ensure patients are treated holistically, leading to improved experience and outcomes.

Care Closer to Home

We focus on improving patient experience and providing more care options allowing us to tailor services to patient needs and preferences. Being able to deliver care closer to, or in, the homes of our patients is reducing the need to come into hospital and patient waiting times.

Developing a Centre of Excellence for Sickle Cell Disease

Our ambition is to create meaningful change in the treatment of sickle cell disease. We are developing a plan for a Centre of Excellence which will bring together a team of multidisciplinary specialists to create and share ways of delivering healthcare. Through this planned centre we aim to achieve world-leading outcomes; directly address health inequalities; pioneer transformational change through research; and extend our education services and knowledge to national and international partners to ensure everyone receives care in line with best practice.

‘One Team’

Across our Haematology Institute, we are focused on working as ‘One Team’ through innovation and by improving the efficiency and sustainability of our work. As part of this focus we have begun integrating our Blood Transfusion Service across the partnership. This involves working together operationally as one team to help reduce duplication, improve clinical quality and patient safety, and improve access to specialist expertise.

We developed a pilot project which focuses on an Integrated Blood Transfusion service; a key, cross-cutting service across our NHS Foundation Trusts, with 17 transfusion practitioners delivering over 100,000 blood components each year. To ensure consistent, high-quality care, the professional competencies and continuous professional development for transfusion practitioners is now aligned across all our trusts, and mandatory e-learning and training has been standardised for all our other staff involved in the transfusion process. We also deliver an annual national conference with the National Transfusion Practitioner Network to share learning and best practice.

Working across the system and beyond

We work with a wide range of local stakeholders to deliver our work including the South East London Cancer Alliance, and Lewisham & Greenwich NHS Foundation Trust. We aim to share learnings and models of care with the wider healthcare system to help improve care both within and beyond the scope of haematology. We also provide education and training resources that support the development of healthcare professionals across all levels of care. 

Patient and public involvement

We want patients and carers to be a part of King's Health Partners Haematology by getting involved.

We have a range of projects and focus groups that you can get involved in. We want to ensure the experience and voice of patients, their families and carers is central to the delivery, ongoing improvement and development of Haematology services provided by King's Collge London NHS Foundation Trust and Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust.

Do you want to get involved?

If you would like more information about patient and public involvement at King's Health Partners Haematology, please email: khphaematology@kcl.ac.uk.

Read our latest news and learn more about upcoming events.

To get in touch with the Institute and learn more about our work, please email KHPHaematology@kcl.ac.uk.