Ethics of gluten free food on prescription - what do you think?

[silverbirch]

Ds and dh are coeliacs. We could get gluten free bread / flour etc. on prescription. For ds this would be free, and it would be a lot cheaper for dh but? I can?t bring myself to do it. It just doesn?t seem right when the funding for life saving treatment that is only availabe on prescription is so tight. If we were very poor it would be different but we are not. Not rich either, somewhere in the middle of the distribution, but since it is now so easy to obtain GF food from Sainsbury?s, Tesco?s etc. I can?t justify getting it on prescription.

I have friends who are a lot better off than us who do get their GF food on prescription. They have every right to do this of course, and to be fair they started when GF food was much harder to find, but it does make me wonder whether I am being unduly ethical.

So other coeliac families, please tell me, what would you / do you do?

[tribpot]

I would use the prescription option. Your ds and dh have a potentially very serious medical condition. My dh is wheat intolerant so doens't qualify but equally, wheat isn't the disaster for him that it can be for a coeliac.

[PinkTinsel]

i have the opposite perspective. over here it's not available on pescription ánd buying wheat free and g-f for dd is breaking us. dp an i have to go without to feed her.

i wish to god it was available on pescription!

why not get it on prescrption and use the money you save on something nice for ds to make up for having to be on a g-f diet?

[silverbirch]

PinkTinsel, where are you?

Interesting that you two who don?t have access to it think I should. I would probably feel the same if we didn?t have access to it, and I do think GF food should be available on prescription so that it is there if needed. I just would feel really bad about using it when it is not absolutely necessary (dh thinks we should BTW, hence the OP).

I have to feed my family anyway, coeliac or not, and there are so many naturally GF alternatives (corn / rice / potatoes etc) that most of the time it is not a huge issue. I am really glad there are so many GF ranges available now and so many GF biscuits / cakes / bread / pasta / pizza bases etc., and we buy and use all these, but we don?t have to eat pasta / pizza / biscuits etc. Admittedly our food is more expensive than we would like but I just feel very uncomfortable with the general assumption that because we can get GF food on prescription we should do so. Is it ethical if we can manage anyway?

[jingleboobs]

use them it is your right afetr all only order what yu need also some of the prescription food is not easy to get hold of without it

[jingleboobs]

pink tinel lives in ireland we were discussing this yesterday

[eveimatildasmum]

I am with you silverbirch, middle of feeding chain and (DD has CD) and could get prescription but dont feel right about it.

Also its all minging, I make bread and she is too small for biscuits that taste like soda bic. I make things that dont need gluten free flour.

Although did use it last night to make (very weird) chritsmas decorations that I overbaked and burnt!

[Jimjams2]

ds1 is on a gluten free diet for autism. ds3 needs the diet as well. We can't get it on prescription. costs a fortune. wish we could..

[PinkTinsel]

i bake as well, am teaching myself yeast baking and the joys of xanthum gum, lol.

compared to the 55c we used to spend on a loaf in aldi though, even that is expensive and it's nice to have packets of biscuits there that i can give her as a treat..... hardly worthwhile baking them for her as she'd only have eaten one or 2 before they go off.

pasta is the biggest cost though. she's a pasta nut and often won'teat anything else and the g-f pasta is expensive

[silverbirch]

Pinktinsel ? my sis is in Ireland and my niece has CD too, my sis would agree with you.

jb ? Ah - missed that yesterday - I can see that we might use prescriptions if we couldn?t get hold of things ? we might be lucky in this area, but we have no problems at all here finding things. The availability of GF food here has improved a lot recently (still expensive though).

em?s mum ? thanks for posting. I feel so much happier now I know there is someone else in the universe who understands how I feel about it!

[clerkKent]

Silverbirch, I am a coeliac and I have some misgivings about getting food on prescription. I am not comfortable with biscuits, which I see as non-essential. I do get bread and pasta, and dw and ds eat the pasta sometimes - another ethical issue. However ds is being investigated for coeliac at the moment, so I think that is fair enough. dw only eats it so there is one less different meal to cook.

If your GP gave you a presription for something that is not life-threatening, e.g. insomnia, would you think about paying for that? GF food is not medicine, but without it we could develop life-threatening problems that would cost the health service much more. Is it ever ethical to have preventitives paid for by the state? WHat about condoms? I think it is a really interesting question, and ultimately we all have to decide individually. (better get back to work now...)

[Dottydot]

Well I can't wait to get my gluten-free food on prescription sorted out. As a newly diagnosed Coeliac I can't believe the bloody price I have to pay for gf food!

At a coeliac meeting I went to recently, the Chief Executive of Coeliac UK was there and was talking about how important she felt it was for gf food to continue on prescription - even (and especially) biscuits when a large percentage of coeliacs are also diabetics - and if they're having trouble managing their blood sugar and need a boost, they can't grab an 'ordinary' biscuit and need gf food like that around sometimes.

I think bread is such a staple food (is that the right expression) that it, pasta, - all of it - should definitely be available on prescription, as potentially the damage non gf food could cause to a Coeliac would cost the NHS far more money...

[Chandra]

DS is allergic to wheat, soya, milk, fish and nuts. Most of his food is very expensive and... we have never been ofered any food product (apart from Neocate) in prescription.

We know a couple that are quite well off (7 figure number in the bank) and they get all the glutten free products in prescription.

I agree with you Silverbirch, I feel bad to ask for them when we can manage the expense ourselves but I consider it unfair that people who has so much money get it for free when there are so many people suffering from glutten related conditions who can not even have access to testing due to lack of NHS funds.


Having said that, it would be good to think of these products being offered to means tested patients, but after all, rich people pay a huge amount of taxes and some way they would like to see something back?

[threebob]

I know people who get the food on prescription for a coeliac and then give it to other family members to use to cook for them when they visit, or relations who want to keep their child off wheat until a year due to the family history.

I think you should take the prescription - it's paid for from your tax, so you are paying twice, and I question whether you are saving someone's life - does it work like that, or are you really just allowing people like my Grandma to have more paracetamol than she could ever use?

[saggarmakersbottomknocker]

I understand where you're coming from with regards to being able to afford not to get your food on prescription. You are entitled to it and I think it's laudable (is that the right word?) that you don't claim.

I think the whole issue needs reviewing though.....some diseases mean that you can get free-prescriptions for life. I think thyroid problems is one. Yet others who have to take equally life-saving drugs either can't get them at all or have to pay for prescriptions. Dd will have to pay for her drugs when she's older, yet without them she would and die or need a transplant. It all seems a little mad.

[clerkKent]

The debate is moving on.
a) Is it ethical to take anything on prescription if you can afford to pay for it? I think this quickly degenerates into a moral issue, because what you earn, the amount of your savings, your disposable income, and the amount of medicine or gluten-free food you need vary, and there cannot be any universal answer to this.

b) What ought to be available free on prescription? That is a very large question. Free drugs for addicts? Very expensive cancer drugs? GF biscuits?

btw saggers, have you been away or using a different name? I have not seen any posts from you for ages (but I only look in selected threads).

[saggarmakersbottomknocker]

Same name CK just being more picky where I post

[tatt]

Gluten free food is expensive and not taking up your right to it may undermine the right of other people to get it on prescription. If the moral issue bothers you give the money you save to funding research on coeliacs or another charity.

I wish those who have to be nut free got some help, food is much more expensive.

[Heartmum2Jamie]

Saggar, I totally hear you on the issue of some meds being free for life and not others.

As for gluten free prescriptions, if ds could have them, we would take them. As it turns out, ds is allergic to wheat (as well as dairy, eggs & nuts). I was told at first that we would get food on prescription but it never materialised. When I questioned this, I was told that many gluten free foods still contain wheat that has been cleansed of the gluten aspect (not sure how true this is), but also becuase of his other allergies, he would not be suitable. I do agree that buying foods for an alergy sufferer can be an expensive game, especially when the person in question is the pickiest toddler on earth who needs a higher than average calorie intake to remain remotely healthy