Northern, Eastern and Western Devon Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), which has responsibility for planning and buying the majority of healthcare services for local people, have introduced a recommendation that gluten free foods should not be available on prescription for patients aged 18 years of age and over. This new guidance recommends that a limited range of bread, pasta, flour and multipurpose mixes should be available for patients under 18 years of age.
This guidance comes into effect on 1st July 2017 and follows engagement with GPs, patients and other stakeholders. This practice has decided to follow the guidance and will normally only provide prescriptions for gluten free products to patients who are under 18 years of age.
The CCG’s decision is one of a number of actions aimed at encouraging people to buy items which are routinely available from pharmacies or local shops, rather than ask their GP to prescribe them.
Gluten free food was added to the list of products provided on prescription when it was not easily available to buy. Gluten free products are now widely available from shops and online, and are often sold to the public at prices that are considerably lower than the NHS pays when they are provided on prescription.
There are many other sources of carbohydrate that do not contain gluten such as rice and potatoes. Coeliac UK publishes excellent resources for people who need to buy and cook with gluten free products. Its website is www.coeliac.org.uk
This approach is being introduced because of increasing demands on NHS services. The CCG is looking at everything it does to ensure that local NHS services use their limited funds to the best effect, and achieve fairness for the whole of our health community.
We hope that you understand the reason for this decision but should you want to discuss this change in approach, please see contact details below.
For and on behalf of Northern, Eastern and Western Devon CCG