Hansard 2007

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From Hansard
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21 Feb 2007 : Column 379

Coeliac Disease

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Mr. Tim Boswell (Daventry) (Con): I commend the hon. Gentleman for bringing this matter to the attention of the House. In relation particularly to people who are less favoured than we are, is he disturbed to know that in my home county of Northamptonshire, the primary care trust has severely attenuated the range of foods that are available on prescription to coeliacs, so that people

21 Feb 2007 : Column 381

on income support are faced with the invidious choice of begging from their family or restricting themselves to a highly unattractive, basic and rarely adequate range of products that they can consume?

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Gordon Banks: The hon. Gentleman makes a valuable point that I shall come to later.
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Moving on to the point made by the hon. Member for Daventry, this Session I have tabled early-day motion 276, which currently has attracted 124 signatures. I take this opportunity to urge other hon. Members to add their names to it. Members of the all-party group and coeliac sufferers are worried that certain primary care trusts are restricting the supply via prescription of gluten-free foods. Those actions appear to be cost-driven, not care-driven, and they have no place in a modern and progressive NHS.

We recognise that many gluten-free foods and ingredients are significantly more expensive than regular foodstuffs. For example, gluten-free flour is about five times more expensive than regular flour. With a gluten-free loaf of bread costing about £2, even a Member who never does the weekly shop will appreciate that that is very expensive for a loaf of bread. However, those goods are not free on prescription for coeliac sufferers unless they are exempt from prescription charges for other reasons. I, and around 91 per cent. of Coeliac UK members, find prescriptions essential for our dietary management. Primary care trusts should not pass on the cost to other patients, certainly not those who cannot afford it.
The goods need to be prescribed by a GP who understands the volume of products required, to ensure that people with busy lives are not expected to treat their GP’s surgery as a grocer’s store and thus add to the GP’s pressures.
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www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200607/cmhansrd/cm070221/debtext/70221-0022.htm

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Kevan Jones (North Durham, Labour)

I start by congratulating my hon. Friend on securing this debate and I declare my interest as the chair of the all-party coeliac disease and dermatitis herpetiformis group. I also declare an interest in being a coeliac sufferer myself. I was diagnosed only five years ago, like my hon. Friend, and after major stomach surgery. I have to say that a gluten-free diet has changed my life, as it did my hon. Friend's, particularly in regard to the symptoms that I previously had. I also stress that a gluten-free diet is not a lifestyle choice or some new Hollywood-type fad diet, but something that we coeliac sufferers need strictly to abide by. My symptoms included tiredness, depression and abdominal pain, but there is also real concern when you do not know what is wrong with you—and the stress that that can cause an individual should not be underestimated.

I am pleased that awareness is being raised, albeit slowly, and I give credit to the House authorities, which co-operated very closely with the all-party group to have food properly labelled in this place. I would also like to congratulate certain supermarkets, such as Sainsbury's, which is very good with food labelling, as well as providing gluten-free alternatives. Even the airline industry has slowly come round to the fact that coeliac sufferers exist, although I always find it strange that when I have a gluten-free meal on British Airways, the air stewardess offers me bread with it. The one thing that I miss is a pint of beer, which I have not been able to enjoy now for about five years, though my hon. Friend tells me that there are some very good alternatives to it.

I finish by saying this. Mr. Boswell referred earlier to prescription, which is vital. This is a crippling disease for the sufferers, and let us not forget the parents of children who suffer from coeliac disease. Those on a limited income cannot afford the expensive alternatives to bread and other foods. Those foods are not luxuries; they are the staples that most people take for granted and buy every day in the supermarkets.I am pleased that this debate has taken place today. Let us hope that it adds a little more to people's understanding of coeliac disease, which is more common than we like to think.

www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2007-02-21c.379.0&s=coeliac+speaker%3A11003#g384.0