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Feel really strongly about this as a fellow coeliac sufferer, not to upset anybody here, but Coeliacs already "Pay" for prescriptions whilst those suffering from Diabetes get "Free" prescriptions, and I depend on my "Paid" for supply from the chemist of very restricted products to get by..I could not afford to keep to my restricted diet if I was to pay for all my bread. Why are diabetics seen as more in need than a coeliac.....the mind boggles...please do not tke offence if you are dibetic you do have my sympathies but this does seem very unfair.

Oh yes have signed the petition

Signed

To help people make a decision on this can you give an estimate of how much it would cost you without free gluten-free foods? Not meaning to sound harsh but for the uninitiated it is difficult to gauge the extent of the problem

I'm a coeliac too but haven't had a prescription for food. What sort of things can you get & are they edible?

Diabetics get meds on prescription but not food. I'm type 2 and keep off medication by buying my own test strips, because the NHS believes I'm not ill enough to need to use them ( I'm not ill enough precisely because I do use them ) and by spending more on food so I can avoid eating a lot of carbs.
Specific "diabetic " foods are a ripoff and a myth, unlike GF foods. Not sure if this helps.

I have a gluten free and lactose free diet. I don't have a diagnosis of coeliac disease due to other health problems in the two years since my GP recommended this diet to me. Both GP and dietician consider it more likely I am coeliac than not. As I have no diagnosis I must pay for all my own special food.

The only special food I need to buy is gluten free bread. This is £2.99 a loaf. I have two slices a day and the loaf lasts me a week. So more expensive than normal bread but not an outrageous cost. My dietician said the only problem is that the supermarket bread is not supplemented with calcium, whereas the prescription bread is. Calcium is a major problem for me as I can have no dairy. This means I get a calcium supplement on prescription.

There is very little other special food that coeliacs need to have prescribed. The NHS should not be prescribing biscuits or cakes to anyone. They are not a healthy part of a diet. Neither are packets of pizza base mix an essential. I just don't eat these foods. I cook real, healthy food. I make extra in the evening for me to have for my lunch the next day.

I buy a few other discretionary gluten free foods - rice noodles (I have these about once a fortnight), kallo stock cubes (for when I can't be bothered to cook properly), and a cereal (which I have very occasionally).

While it may be wrong to refuse to prescribe any gluten free food on prescription, the current system is ridiculous and in need to reform.

I totally support this - my sister is a coeliac , so have signed.

As a type 1 diabetic I received free prescriptions - I was on 5 insulin injections per day etc and I think your prescriptions are free as you need insulin to keep you alive - if you don't take it you will die. I have now had a kidney and pancreas transplant and this is seen as a treatment for type 1 diabetes and I am incredibly lucky and don't need to take insulin for as long as my transplant lasts. I have to take immunosuppressants now to stop me from rejecting my new organs and if I stopped taking these I would lose my transplants and be back on insulin etc. I no longer receive free prescriptions though and buy a yearly prescription. It is only £104 which compared to how many different medications I take and how often is hardly anything. I do really sympathise though as my dad is coeliac. He gets things like flour on prescription and sometimes a few loaves of bread. He has very brittle bones because of being coeliac for years without a diagnosis and I know there are other complications of not keeping a gluten free diet if you are coeliac and it is a very serious condition. I fully support this petition and will be forwarding.

I need the prescribed items I get from the doctors as it is not available to even buy in the supermarkets anyway. I have osteoporosis and this is due to malabsorption due to coeliac disease. I was diagnosed over 40 years ago and little was know in them days and not much information available to my parents to feed me correctly. This may be a contributory factor to my other problems I have now. I have numerous conditions linked to my coeliac and even though I pay for my prescriptions for all my medication, if my coeliac food was taken off me I would be very upset as it is very important in my diet (required calcium and vitamins added for example). Please sign the petition

I should add I was told I had osteoporosis when I was only 35! I was told I had the bones of an 85 year old then

Anothercupofcoffee I know this is totally off the original topic and may not be relevant to you but have you tried lactose since being totally gluten free? Undiagnosed coeliacs often become temporarily lactose intolerant due to gut damage, once the damage has healed it is possible to digest lactose again. Again sorry if this is just repeating something you already know, thought it was worth a mention.

briefly, yes! thanks

why is the OP deleted???

what i'd like to know is why do only coeliacs get prescription food?

i spend a fortune on oat milk for my intolerant children. why can't they have that on prescription?

OP has been deleted as you're not allowed to use MN to drum up support for petitions.

No idea why it's only coeliacs who get prescription food, there are plenty of allergies which are just as hard to work around that don't get anything, it is odd but I think it would be better to ask for better provision for others, not less for coeliacs.

Anothercupofcoffee - I am in the same position as you. I don't get any prescriptions for coeliac. I cook my own bread and cakes and eat normal food stuffs otherwise. I buy lactase for about £10 per bottle once a month to put in cream and I buy lactofree milk.

My diet is more expensive than a normal diet but then as others have said, allergy sufferers do not generally get special diet prescriptions. For this reason I do not support this petition.

Coeliac isn't an intolerance, it's a autoimmune disorder, like diabetes. That may be why there's better provision for coeliacs. Having said that and as a coeliac, I think that the prescription service is too extensive for gluten free food and I choose not to abuse it, only getting bread because I can't get the brands I can eat any other way - that's a completely separate issue. From talking to pharmacists, including my coeliac pharmacist, lots of people treat the prescription service like a supermarket ordering service. In my opinion, there should be a slightly different prescription format for coeliac staples where items are subsidised but not fully funded, bringing them down to the cost of a regular branded supermarket item - for example, if Doves Farm gluten free flour was available on prescription, this costs £1.70 in Tesco, vs £1.40 for Homepride flour, so a 30p subsidy should be available for those who need it. I also think NHS resources would be better spent providing a recipe database for gluten free baking rather than providing luxury items such as basic biscuits which cost the tax payer money and don't look particularly edible.

MoreBeta as you said you are not Coeliac and are an allergy sufferer, not suffering an intolerance and autoimmune disease, so why would you get a prescription. I too cook my own bread and pasta and buy a lot of my own foods...I just need my bread and flour prescription...and so my diet is too more expensive than a normal diet. I am suprised you do not support the petition as you do suffer like we coeliacs do...but hey each to their own

i don't think it matters whether it's an autoimmune disease or an allergy or an intolerance though does it?

children allergic to cows milk need to have an alternative. their parents have to spend a hell of a lot on non-dairy milk and other dairy-free products.
just like coeliacs need an alternative to gluten-based products.

i fail to see how there is any difference.

medjool - I very much agree with the point your pharmacist made ".... lots of people treat the prescription service like a supermarket ordering service".

IME my coeliac condition costs me about £4 - 5 more per week than if I ate ordinary food. A bag of Dove farm flour, 2 packs of Pure margarine, a bit of gluten free pasta, 2 litres of Lactofree milk and 5 drops of lactase for cream. I cook all my food myself apart from an occassional Genius loaf for convenience.

I accept that for someone on benefits £5 a week is a lot but for most people it is not. Moreover, most people have minor medical conditions and mostly accept they have to spend £5 a week to deal with it. It is the price of a bottle of wine. I think the prescription system should be limited to cover expensive and or dangerous drugs.

I agree that no one should have free scripts for pizza bases and cakes etc.

I am gluten intolerant and manage very well without any of the above- by eating real food and buying a loaf of gluten free bread once a week.

If anyone who is coeliac wants junk food they can make their own by buying potato/rice flour and making their own biscuits- or buying them from specialist bakers like Doves Farm.

Why should the tax payer have to fork out for these non-essential "foods"?

I have two children with coeliacs one of whom also had diabetes - getting bread on prescription for us is a great help and it is very expensive - packed lunches really ramp it up as school dinners in our area are not available for coeliac children with diabetes - too complex apparently! I imagine we get about a third of our total bread on prescription, mainly because it takes a long time for it to be delevered - over a week normally and sometimes over 10 days. We get the occasional bags of pasta and we have had some biscuits at the beginning 9we have not bothered since actually - my diabetic dd needs a lot of snacks so again these are a real help.

Coeliacs is not having an intolerance, it is not a lifestyle choice it is an auto immune disorder and needs to be treated seriously. Coeliacs is not a minor medical condition, long term non treatment has very serious consequences, my dds diabetes is almost untreatable without keeping strictly to her diet, not be able to absorb food properly is not an option for someone in her position. I do cook a lot from scratch (mostly in fact) but having access to occasional pizza bases that are edible as lots of gf stuff is not nice even if you do make it yourself is vital. Breakfast cereals for instance are more than double the price for GF and porridge oats is quadruple price for the same weight of oats - I don't get either of these on prescription but for us would be a big help - i do make all my own cakes and biccies and flapjacks etc for the children. Also when buying GF you have no access to bogofs and such in supermarkets (which save me a packet otherwise) and out shopping bill is very large. We do not take advantage of the system but the current system is wrong and perhaps vouchers should be prescribed rather than 6 loaves of genius bread at a time as they cost more than double to produce that way than buying in a supermarket.

a lifestyle choice? are you serious?

do you think having a life-threatening allergy is a "lifestyle choice" ???????

or is it, in fact, like diabetes and coeliacs a condition that affects your day to day life in a major way and that requires a special diet?

where is the petition? i will sign (my 4yo has just been diagnosed coeliac)