Committee calls for substantial investment in allergy services

The government needs to make a substantial investment in allergy services in the NHS in England, says the House of Commons health select committee in its latest report, which describes the current provision as “manifestly inequitable.”

“The current provision… owes nothing to the geographical spread of allergy in the population,” the report says. “Rather, it comprises those centres where specialist research in allergy has taken place, on the back of which clinical services have developed ad hoc.”

No comprehensive allergy service in England north of Manchester and west of Bournemouth currently exists, says the report. The committee calls for a minimum of one specialist allergy centre in …