MPs warn of deficiencies in allergy services
Access to NHS treatment for allergy sufferers is a “lottery”, according to a new report from the Commons Health Select Committee.
Publishing its report into the provision of allergy services on the NHS, committee chairman David Hinchliffe, said that many GPs were “ignorant” of treatment options and that there is a huge “geographical inequity”.
The report notes that the number of allergy sufferers has escalated in the past few years, with 30 per cent of adults and 40 per cent of children now affected. Looking at the key examples of nut allergies, the committee notes that in 1990 peanut allergy was rare, but by 1996 one in 200 children were allergic, a figure which rose to one in 70 in 2002.
Explaining the committee’s findings, Mr Hinchliffe, said: “We discovered that, despite the escalating scale of the problem, specialist allergy treatment was very difficult to access. Most GPs have little or no training in allergy and often fail to diagnose allergy properly or refer it to an appropriate specialist.
“Making such a referral in any case is often impossible for much of the country: there are only six full-time specialist centres for the treatment of allergy in the NHS, with none at all west of Bournemouth or north of Manchester, a geographical inequity which I find staggering. Indeed, there is only one specialist consultant per two million of the population as against one per 100,000 for a mainstream specialty such as gastroenterology. The absence of a specialist service means that patients, and even GPs, are often ignorant of the treatment options.”
He warned that with this lack of expertise, patients are often given drugs for “years and years” to manage symptoms rather than receiving treatment by an allergist.
Mr Hinchliffe went on to argue that patients are forces to wait “unacceptably long times” with care being a “lottery”. Continuing, the chairman said that: “We suggest the very absence of services is contributing to a perception of unmet need since there can be no waiting lists for clinics that do not exist.”
The MPs care calling for a centre of allergy expertise in every part of the country, a minimum one per every five to seven million of the population, and for a specialist allergy consultant to be in post in most major teaching hospitals.
The Department of Health is expected to publish a detailed response to the report before Christmas.
