NHS ALLERGY SERVICES

That this House welcomes the newly established All Party Parliamentary Group on Allergy and its aim to raise awareness in Parliament of the need to improve the provision of, and access to, NHS allergy services across the country; expresses concern that despite the recommendations made in reports by the Health Select Committee and the Lords Science and Technology Committee on allergy and a recent review of allergy services by the Department of Health, there is still an unacceptable gap between patient need and service provision because there is only a vestigial allergy service in the UK and too few posts across the country are being funded for allergist specialists; acknowledges the National Allergy Strategy Group's estimates that around 18 million people in the UK live with a disease where allergy may be involved and that around seven million of those have allergy severe enough to require specialist care; and calls for more allergy specialist posts to be created and funded in the NHS, the greater prioritisation and effective commissioning of allergy services to take place at the local level, and adequate training to be provided to enable effective referral and management of less severe allergies in primary care.