Allergies are Britain’s fastest-growing unmet health need – ministers must act now
Helen Blythe, Sharon Hodgson and Prof Adam Fox OBE at the launch of the National Allergy Strategy
3 min read
I began training as an allergy doctor in 2003, the same year the Royal College of Physicians published its landmark report Allergy: the Unmet Need.
Its warning was clear: the burden of allergic disease was rising sharply, but services were woefully inadequate. More than two decades later, that verdict still stands.
Back then, in paediatric clinics, families waited a year for appointments. Children with severe eczema, multiple food allergies and uncontrolled symptoms were left to cope alone. Parents arrived exhausted, frightened and unsupported. It was unacceptable then. It is indefensible now.
Allergy is too often dismissed as minor inconvenience- a sneeze in spring, a child avoiding peanuts, an antihistamine in the bathroom cabinet. But for millions of people, allergy is anything but trivial. It can mean life-threatening reactions to food, medicines or insect stings. It can mean severe eczema that destroys sleep and mental wellbeing. It can mean asthma worsened by allergic triggers, repeated hospital admissions, and constant anxiety.
Around 30 per cent of people in the UK live with allergic disease. That means almost every family, school and workplace is affected. Yet Britain has only a fraction of the specialist workforce seen in comparable health systems, and access to modern treatments remains patchy or unavailable.
This is now one of the country’s greatest unmet health need.
That is why the launch of the National Allergy Strategy this week matters. It is not a wish list or a lobbying exercise. It is a practical, evidence-based plan for reform, built by clinicians, charities, patients and professionals across the sector. Most importantly, it aligns squarely with the Government’s own ambitions for the NHS. Ministers say they want to shift from sickness to prevention, from hospitals to community care, and from fragmentation to smarter use of data. Allergy offers the perfect test case.
For too long, our approach has been reactive. We respond after tragedy: after a fatal anaphylactic reaction, after an emergency admission, after a child has struggled for years without specialist support. The campaign for Benedict’s Law — which could become primary legislation in this Parliament — is a powerful and necessary response to one such tragedy. But while stronger protections matter enormously, we should not need to keep naming laws after children whose deaths might have been prevented.
We need a system that stops those deaths happening in the first place.
Prevention means earlier diagnosis, better education, clear care pathways and safer everyday environments in schools, restaurants and public spaces. It means identifying those at risk before crisis hits. It means recognising that preventing one emergency admission is better - and cheaper - than treating ten. It also means accepting that hospitals cannot do this alone. Most allergy care should happen in the community, provided primary care teams have the training and confidence to deliver it. GPs, nurses and pharmacists need better support. Specialists should focus on the most complex cases, not plug gaps elsewhere. And this cannot sit solely with the Department of Health. Schools need clear national guidance. The food sector needs consistent standards. Public bodies need to understand their responsibilities. Allergy is a cross-government challenge and requires cross-government leadership. The UK has world-class allergy researchers and committed clinicians. What we have lacked is political urgency.
Twenty-two years after Allergy: the Unmet Need, ministers have a chance to prove we have finally learned the lesson. Allergy can no longer be treated as an afterthought.
Government must act now.
Prof Adam Fox OBE is Chair of the National Allergy Strategy Group
