A specialised sickle cell emergency service at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel will continue following a campaign, it has been announced.
A trial run between September and January established a same‑day unit that provided an alternative to A&E admissions.
Barts Health NHS Trust says that, with an additional £1m investment, it aims to continue this service, but as yet it is not known if this will be in the format of a same-day unit, as before.
Dr Raj Thuraisingham, the hospital's divisional director for medicine, said: "Improving services for people living with this lifelong condition is one of our priorities and we worked hard to improve our community outreach provision."
'Debilitating and dangerous'
In a statement on the trust's website, Barts Health NHS said: "It's debilitating, dangerous, and a disease that disproportionately affects people from Black and Caribbean backgrounds.
"Those living with sickle cell disease need more than the very best medical treatment to manage this lifelong condition," it added.
The trust said one in seven of all those in the UK with sickle cell conditions lived in north-east London and Essex, and its hospitals had about 900 patients on their books.
It said this was why £2m had been invested in boosting emergency services for sickle cell patients in September "in order to improve patient outcomes, reduce health inequalities, and prevent hospital admissions".