Mid-Bedfordshire MP Nadine Dorries recently attended a meeting held by Flitwick based nut allergy group S.A.F.E.

During the meeting, Nadine answered a number of questions about what could be done to ensure that allergy sufferers throughout the country, are given the necessary level of health care and support.

Nadine went back to parliament and put the following questions to the Secretary of State for Health:

(1) what steps the Government are taking to ensure that complementary allergy practitioners are properly (a) regulated and (b) inspected; and if she will make a statement;

(2) what steps the Government have taken to ensure parents and legal guardians are appropriately trained and informed on how EpiPens should be used; and if she will make a statement;

(3) what research the Government have commissioned on changes in numbers of allergy sufferers in the last five years;

(4) what steps she is taking to improve the level of (a) training in and (b) awareness of allergies of health professionals who work in (i) primary and (ii) secondary health care; and if she will make a statement;

(5) what steps she is taking to improve (a) access to and (b) information about specialist allergy treatment; and if she will make a statement.

Liam Byrne (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department of Health) replied: 

Primary care trusts, in partnership with local stakeholders, are responsible for determining which health services their local population requires and ensuring the provision of these services.

In its response to the Health Select Committee on the provision of allergy services, the Government undertook to carry out a review of the available data and research on the epidemiology of allergic conditions, the demand for and provision of treatment and the effectiveness of relevant interventions. This review, which is being overseen by the chief medical officer and is due to report by June 2006, will inform decisions about what steps could be taken to address any service gaps and pressures that are revealed by the review.

The Government recognise that one of the key determinants of the quality of patient care is that health professionals have an appropriate level of skills and knowledge. Addressing the training needs of health professionals is, however, the responsibility of the appropriate regulatory bodies. They set standards for the pre-registration training of doctors, nurses and other health care professionals, approve the education institutions that provide the training and determine the curricula.

Post-registration training needs for NHS staff are decided against local NHS priorities, through appraisal processes and training needs analyses informed by local delivery plans and the needs of the service. Local authorities and health service providers decide how best to provide services to meet the needs of the individuals.

We have not commissioned research into the rise in incidence of allergic conditions. The independent allergy charity, Allergy UK, estimates that allergic conditions affects approximately one in four of the UK population at some time in their lives, with the numbers affected increasing by five per cent. each year.

The Government place great importance on protecting the public from potentially unsafe practitioners, and intends to take forward statutory regulation of herbal medicine and acupuncture. We encourage other currently unregulated complementary practitioners to develop their own unified systems of voluntary self-regulation. The Department have awarded a grant of £900,000 over the next three years to the Prince of Wales's Foundation for Integrated Health to work with a range of complementary health care professions to develop a voluntary self-regulation scheme.

Responsibility for educating parents and legal guardians in the use EpiPens rests with prescribing health professional. Doctors, pharmacists and other health care professionals should support parents and carers in providing information about medicines and promoting the use of information resources such as www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/

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