Summary
Allergy in the United Kingdom has now reached epidemic
proportions.
This Report
‘Allergy’
(HL 166-I) examines the provision of allergy treatment in the UK.
In the UK the incidence of common allergic diseases has trebled in
the last twenty years to become one of the highest in the world. The treatment
of allergies is a significant cost to the National Health Service and there is
a severe shortage of allergy specialists in the United Kingdom. Allergies can
have a detrimental impact upon the education of children at school or the
performance of adults at work. Problems with data collection mean that
statistics are imprecise and a significant proportion of general practitioners
are unable to diagnose and manage allergic disorders as they have nowhere to
refer patients with complex allergies.
The Report recommends that
allergy centres led by a full-time allergist should be developed, where various
specialists come together to diagnose and manage patients with complex allergic
disorders. These allergy centres should be a source of education and training
for doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers at every grade. They should
also advance research, enabling effective treatments to be developed, and
should provide the clinical database required for epidemiological studies.
Clinicians within the allergy centre should work together with local schools,
employers, charities and others to educate the general public, and particularly
patients and their families, on allergy matters.
Other recommendations
include:
- Maintaining clinical surveillance systems to monitor
allergic disease
- Calling for further research into the ways in which
the indoor environment influences allergy development
- Reviewing how
children with hayfever are supported throughout the examination system
- Assessing the training that teachers receive in dealing with allergic
emergencies
- Assisting individuals with occupational allergies to
return to work
- Amending food labelling legislation to specify the
amount of allergens contained within products
- Analysing the costs and
benefits of immunotherapy treatment
- Withdrawing advice which
recommends peanut avoidance for pregnant women.
The Report is
accompanied by
'Volume
2: Evidence’ (HL 166-II): this Volume includes a CD-ROM containing the
report (HL 166-I) and the accompanying evidence (HL 166-II).
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How does it affect me?
If you work in the health sector or are an
allergy sufferer, this affects you.
The House of Lords Science and
Technology Committee argue that the Government must take steps to tackle
allergy in the UK, which is now reaching epidemic proportions.
Baroness
Finlay, Chairman of the Sub-Committee, said: “Allergies are an ever growing
problem in the West and are now reaching epidemic proportions. They can impair
people’s quality of life and in extreme cases can even lead to death. We have a
severe shortage of expert medical provision to deal with allergies in the UK.
The Government must now take steps to deal with that problem by establishing a
specialist allergy centre in every Strategic Health Authority. These would act
as a beacon of good practice and ensure new knowledge about allergies was
spread and applied across the NHS.”
Find out more about the
House
of Lords Science and Technology Committee.
Read more on
health policy
on the Department of Health website.
See more about
allergies
on NHS Direct.