NHS unfair on coeliac disease patients

FURTHER to Margaret Henley's anger over prescription restrictions (Observer, April 1) I too was diagnosed with coeliac disease eight years ago and since then I have received gluten-free bread, flour and pasta on prescription.

Like Margaret, I have always paid for my prescriptions and contributed to the NHS throughout my working life through tax and National Insurance.

The local PCT’s decision to axe most breads and flours and all of the other items previously available on prescription is ill-judged.

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The PCT has cut out any fresh white or brown bread (my staple bread) and is offering long-life bread instead, sealed in a plastic wrapper and lasting several months. No prizes for guessing what it tastes like - but worse, I can’t even buy the lovely fresh gluten-free bread I have been eating as the manufacturers will only supply to pharmacists, who in turn will only dispense to coeliac patients on prescription.

The same goes for my gluten-free wheat flour - cakes made with this are yummy and indistinguishable from ordinary cakes. The PCT has struck this from the prescription list because of cost - and now list flours made from rice, potato and tapioca. The local PCT says that “as a wide range of products is now available in supermarkets, which was not previously the case, it is felt reasonable to expect people to buy some of their own foods”. I resent the implication that the NHS is paying for all my food!

Coeliacs can eat any fresh unadulterated fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, eggs and milk. We have to cook nearly everything ourselves - it is the “hidden” ingredients in the coatings and sauces of most ready-meals that make it impossible for us to eat them.

Also, I’m not sure what supermarket the PCT has discovered, but even Bexhill’s largest supermarket has only a two-metre display of “free from” foods - much of which is for customers on other diets than coeliac.

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As these items are at least double and sometimes triple the cost of equivalent gluten-containing items, my food bill is very high. Take-away food is mostly out of the question and eating out is fraught with difficulties - I can’t just buy a sandwich to keep me going.

I am very angry at the local PCT’s decision, especially as this is not the case in most other parts of the country.

What a pity Margaret and I don’t live in Eden in Cumbria.

There they have a new scheme whereby coeliac patients nominate a pharmacy and can then order a wide range of gluten-free products from it.

I wonder how many members of the PCT committee who so casually made this decision without patient consultation would enjoy eating long-life bread every morning for the rest of their lives?

WENDY DENNIS

Woodsgate Avenue

Bexhill-on-Sea