Disappointment follows 2007 House of Lords allergy report

Industry experts in Britain have voiced their concerns that little progress has been made towards implementing the recommendations set out in the UK House of Lords report on allergy that was issued in 2007. The big gap that remains between numbers of patients and services available and the lack of a network of allergy specialists are among the shortfalls highlighted in a recent report from a Joint Royal College of Physicians and Royal College of Pathologists Working Party.

Recommendations that were set out in the UK House of Lords report include improvements to food labelling, allergy training for GPs and measures to recruit more allergy specialists. The latest report describes the UK's allergy services as inadequate and, as a result, unnecessary costs continue to be carried by the National Health Service (NHS) due to undiagnosed and untreated allergic disease.

The June 2010 report outlines shortfalls in the number of allergy specialists available to meet clinical need; poor leadership of allergy services due to lack of a network and infrastructure; no improvements on the serious hazards of inappropriate food labelling; and little progress on improving allergy management training in primary and non-specialist health services.

Steps that have been taken to improve allergy services are also outlined in the report and these include the establishment of ten medical training posts, a pilot allergy centre in the north-west, improved advice for pregnant women and short guidelines on children's food allergy from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. However, the authors maintain there is huge potential to do better in a cost effective way. They make recommendations for further actions by a range of stakeholders including, the Department of Health, local health boards and providers of allergy services, in order to provide cost-effective improvements in allergy care within the current funding climate.

The full report can be downloaded from The Royal College of Pathologists website.