NHS failing to cope with increasing incidence of allergies

NHS swamped by an epidemic of allergies The Observer

Extracts:

"The NHS is failing to keep up with the growing number of allergy sufferers, with new figures today showing that only a handful of specialist doctors across the country are running clinics for them.

One in three people in Britain can expect to suffer from some form of allergy during their lifetime - including 2 million people in the UK thought to have some allergy to food - but there has been barely any increase in NHS services to cope with this. Experts will warn this week that demand for care is outstripping the NHS's ability to cope, and many patients go to private clinics or dietitians that may offer unconventional diets."

"Dr Jonathan Brostoff, who will speak on the issue at the Allergy Show in London this week, said: 'If you have a food allergy it can have a debilitating effect on your life. Sometimes people end up in private clinics where they go on really gruelling dietary regimes, such as being told to eat lamb, carrots and pears for three months. It certainly doesn't make them better and they may end up worse as a result. Often they pay quite a bit and end up being left to get on with it.' He said there was still enormous scepticism within the health service about whether patients 'truly' had an allergy or were just imagining it.

Britain has one of the highest rates of allergy in the world, along with America, Australia and New Zealand. For reasons not understood, in the last 20 years the rate of eczema and asthma has at least doubled, and there has been at least a threefold increase in nut allergies. Before the mid-Nineties nut allergies were rare, but one in 50 schoolchildren now has one. In the last four years the number of adults with food allergies has also shot up, partly as a result of more awareness, with thousands suffering reactions to shellfish, vegetables, seeds, nuts, kiwis and plums."

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