Poor care given for allergies

The House of Lords science and technology committee has warned that there are not enough specialist services to cope and said that poor care and advice is being given to deal with this “allergy epidemic”. The committee called for specialist allergy centres to be set up in each region, similar to those operating in Germany and Denmark, and said that the UK is lagging behind the rest of Europe.

The report added that there was poor knowledge of allergies among health professionals and recommended that allergy training becomes a more important part of medical training. The committee also heard evidence that abstaining from eating nuts during pregnancy is actually increasing the risk of allergies and urged the Government to change its advice.