Key Messages - Allergy: the facts

Allergy has changed and is now a major cause of illness.

The ‘allergy epidemic’ affects westernised countries. The UK is particularly badly hit. Most other countries have better allergy services than the UK

• Allergy is increasing in frequency, severity and complexity
  • More people are affected
  • Allergic disease is now more complex, with multiple allergic diseases in one patient
  • Allergy is becoming more severe

As a result the problem posed by allergy has changed over the last 2-3 decades, and allergy is now an important cause of major illness and cost to the NHS.

• NHS allergy services are poor.
• Most doctors have little or no knowledge or competence in allergy. There are very few specialists (adult or paediatric consultant allergists). Most newly qualified doctors today have no training in clinical allergy – because most teaching hospitals have no allergists to provide this training, and there is little recognition of how important a problem allergic disease is.
• As a result, there is a wide gap between patient need and service provision.
• Allergy, although an established medical speciality, remains very small and under resourced, little recognised in many organisations within the NHS – most PCTs (the organisations that ‘purchase’ allergy services on behalf of their patients) do not commission allergy services and have little awareness of what allergy offers. Many parts of the country do not have a specialist allergist and patients either have to travel long distances to see one or see a doctor in another speciality.
• There are only 12 posts in England for doctors to be trained to become consultants in allergy. Each takes 5 years to be trained. Unless this number is increased substantially we are not in a good position to expand the NHS allergy service.