Food Allergies - can anyone help answer a question

[differentnameforthis]

I am wondering if someone can answer a question for me.

I am chatting on my Australian chat site, on a debate about nappies. The hospitals supply them here for the entire stay & also sanitary products. well, some hospitals are stopping this, and asking people to take them in. They are arguing that this is wrong & they should still have their free nappies....anyway, this debate has not crossed over to allergies. One girl (lived in Oz all her life, not travelled much) said that in the UK if you have a food allergy/intolerance you get all the specialized food for free, supplied by the Gov.

Now, it has been a while since I have been in the UK (4 years) but I am quite sure then that people with allergies didn't get free food. But am open to the fact that things change. Can anyone clarify this, before I go in shouting this girl down!

The reason I gave the background, is that she feels that UK = free food for allergy sufferers, so they should still get their nappies!

The only case I can think of is someone I knew years ago got gluten free bread on Rx, but he paid prescription price for them. Possibly private?

now crossed over to allergies

You get gluten free stuff if you are celiac on prescription. If you are on free prescriptions, then its free so its free for all children. You don't get it for gluten intollerence (AFAIK) and there isn't anything for other allergies so you can't get someting like nut free choc if you have a nut allergy.

Thanks LJ!

What LuckyJim said, also with babies, you can get hypoallergenic formula on prescription as well. Nothing else though - no nut free choc, dairy free yoghurts etc, coeliac is the big exception where you get a number of 'units' of staples (flour, bread, pasta etc) on prescription - the number of units depends on the age of the person.

Thanks Ace.

you might also tell your friend that in UK hospitals if you want allergy free food you'll probably have to get someone to bring it in! I know of someone in hospital recovering from an anaphylactic reaction who was given food with nut traces and told it was their fault for eating it. This after they had tried to check with nurses and the kitchen that the food was safe.

Wow, that's scary....thanks tatt!

Thanks bb