to think I should be able to eat pizza

[letmeeatpizza]

Nc. Basically my gp has got very stingy with prescriptions, for years I've been getting pizza bases and crackers for my celiac. But now apparently I can only be given pasta, bread and flour mixes. I know the NHS in Wales has some funding problems but I can't eat normal foods and they are more expensive and I could die if I doNt stick to the diet. I'd be perfectly happy to pay a nominal price of a pound or so a packet so they end up no more expensive than normal stuff but the system isn't in place. So I'm at the mercy of profit driven supermarkets who charge loads because they can.

In my area the CCG are only allowing bread on prescription now, they won't pay for anything else, it's a points system so adults are allowed 8 fresh loaves a fortnight and children can have 8 a week. And only Juvela, genius or glutafin brands. I get the odd script for the warburtons one but that's from the neighbouring CCG.
It costs £28 for 8 loaves

8 LOAVES OF BREAD A FORTNIGHT?

arethereanyleftatall
Fascicle - the nhs is not a bottomless pot of money.
You can find out how to make a pizza base on you tube.

You are preaching to the converted! My suggestion was to save money - money that is already being spent on free prescriptions for food items and consultations with NHS dieticians. I did mention tutorials as an option (i.e. online).

If you equip people with life long skills, then hopefully you reduce the risk of longer term ill health due to not complying with a gluten free diet (through perceived difficulty or lack of knowledge).

"For coeliac and non-coeliac gluten sensitivity the argument is that there is now such a huge range of products easily available in supermarkets that it's not efficient to get them on prescription. Indeed, it's more expensive on prescription. As posters have pointed out you can easily buy gluten free pizza bases in sainsbury's or online (if necessary)."

All prescriptions are free in Wales.

All prescriptions are free in Wales.

Not for the NHS, they aren't.

Yep 8 a fortnight, they are 400g loaves so only tiny. Unless you get the genius sandwich and they are 535g and you can have 6 of those not 8.

Haven't read the whole thread, just 1st and last pages but for goodness sake - it's not that bloody difficult to make a GF pizza base - either make a scone type mixture or a basic bread type dough, no measuring required and one bowl used for mixing - it's hardly trashing the kitchen!

YABtotallyU to expect the NHS to fund your dietary wants - you will not die due to a lack of GF pizza bases. Naturally GF carbs are available everywhere - potatoes, rice, sweet potatoes. All you have to do is open your mind and use your imagination, and get creative with your prescription flour when you need a pizza buzz. And I speak as a fellow coeliac.

Apologies to others for being a bit sweary but - sheesh!!! - it's attitudes like the OP's that make all coeliac's seem unbearable.

8 loaves for one person though? Thats crazy! One 400g loaf would do me.amd my 2 kids a week. Do people really eat that much bread?
I dont mind what people get on prescription, im just amazed at how much bread people seem to eat.

Ready made pizzabases taste crap. You won't die without pizza (or biscuits) They are making cuts everywhere of course luxuries are going to be the first to go (justifiably so)and be grateful you can get (vaguely) decent bread On on prescription these days (my first prescription came in a tin)

YABU
I don't think you'd be asking for it on prescription if you lived in England, would you as it would be over £8?

Fair enough Fascicle, classes would be better than free stuff, but I would go one step further and say classes shouldn't be paid for either by a government pot, people should take their own responsibility.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think genuine coeliac disease can cause extreme health problems if left untreated

Indeed - from anaemia to osteoporosis and bowel cancer. Sufferers are also more at risk of other immune disorders such as diabetes. Which is why I get pissed off by the eye rollers who think this is a fad, who tell DD she will grow out of it, or that cheating "just the once" won't hurt. Or that she will be able to eat what she likes once she leaves home! She's not stupid! Aside from the immediate D&V, headaches and lethargy (which can last several days), she knows that each episode damages the gut and scars it and makes absorbing food harder (as well as the long term risk of gut cancers). Girls can also have problems conceiving or with repeated miscarriages if they do not adhere to GF.

But the issue of whether any GF food be available on the NHS either free (for those who get free prescriptions) or subsidised (for those who have to pay but can get a prepaid certificate that covers all prescriptions and can be considerably cheaper) is not the same as OP saying she MUST HAVE GF PIZZA, which is lazy & entitled. No one needs pizza.

(BTW studies have shown that people tend to stick better to the GF Diet when they have access to some prescribed foods, and it is recognised that children from low income families are less likely to stick to GF. Heartbreaking stories from an ex headteacher friend who used to provide healthy GF meals & snacks herself in termtime and the child would come back after a holiday all pale and ill because the parents couldn't be bothered/couldn't afford to feed them properly).

And for those who think no GF food should be available on the NHS, go look at some prices - 4 rolls for £2.50. A tiny loaf for £2.95. Flour and pasta and breakfast cereals twice the normal price. Plus having to buy better quality/more expensive brands of basics such as ketchup or beans, because the cheaper ones are bulked out with wheatstarch. Multiply that up for a family with several members GF and its ££££ difference compared to the non GF versions.
IF the NHS were to stop providing a few basics then more people would be iller because of not sticking to GF = other costs to NHS (and also it's a very limited amount that you can be prescribed anyway, dependant on gender, age, whether pg or BFing, people still have to buy some - they cant have unlimited supplies!)

well done if you read all that and sorry for the rant.

I think some are a bit confused about coeliac disease and how serious it can be. Dd age 5 was diagnosed with this this week she has been seriously ill for a long time and nobody seemed to no why. She has only grown 3cm in 2 and a half years feet not grown at all and her weight is so low she's dropped to the 0.4 percentile line. Although yes I think yabu to demand pizza bases on prescription as you can make them with ingredients you already get or purchase them from a supermarket, one post said you can not die ffrom coeliac disease just want to point out yes you can if you stick gf diet you become malnourished and starve to death. Believe me seen this slowing happening to do over last few years and you wouldn't wish it on your worse enemy. But yes being very unreasonable to demand anything on prescription.

Make pizza dough today (with 600g flour, 10g sugar, 10g salt, 1 packet yeast, 20ml olive oil, 300ml water).

Let it rise today (3 hours minimum). Then divide into ~200g balls you should get 4-5 balls). Wrap in cling film and freeze. Take one out tomorrow before going to work and put in fridge and it'll be ready when you get home. Or defrost in microwave. Try defrost setting for 2 mins, then 1 min, then 1 min until defrosted. Don't overdo it or you'll ruin it.

So you'd just have one day of a messy kitchen and 5 pizza bases.

Hi worldsgonemade, DD was also diagnosed at 5 having been ill for some time. GP initially would not listen to our worries about her bowels from age 2. Not until HV started being concerned that her younger sister was heavier and taller, did we get anywhere. She was SO anaemic by them she was admitted to hospital for a blood transfusion!! DH mum had been fobbed of for 30+ years and told she had IBS, and his grandad from the generation who did not discuss their bowels even with a GP, but had always had a "dodgy tummy" died of bowel cancer. Both of them were obviously coeliac.

I hope your DD makes rapid progress and you can find lots of helpful ideas on this and other sites. You're welcome to pm me with any Qs Good luck.

arethereanyleftatall
Fair enough Fascicle, classes would be better than free stuff, but I would go one step further and say classes shouldn't be paid for either by a government pot, people should take their own responsibility.

I would disagree. I think it's important for people, who have life long conditions to manage, to feel supported, and to feel they can access resources. I'm sure that makes a significant difference to the success of controlling their condition. If they aren't supported and fall off the wagon, there will be a cost to the NHS.

PHANTOMnamechanger
4 rolls for £2.50

Just for info, Tesco sell DS gluten free rolls for £1.50. Whilst pasta, flour etc is approx twice the price of regular versions, I still think they are relatively cheap foods (e.g. a 500g bag of g/f pasta from Tesco costs £1.40 and contains approx 7 servings - so about 20p a serving).

I like the idea of those of us who struggle to absorb iron getting steak on prescription.

That would be very nice please.

DS2 has severe asthma. He is 18 now and off to uni in September. We will have to start paying for his 4 prescriptions a month then. He would likely die without them. We can afford a year's pre-payment certificate, but many can't.

I agree that some foods should be funded for coeliacs on the NHS, but not all. No-one has died from not eating a pizza. I can't eat them, they make my IBS flare up really badly so have not eaten them for about 10 years. It hasn't harmed me!

Thank you phantomnamechanger I will do that during the week when dd is aloud home from hospital

Last year I found that if I didn't eat gluten then I didn't have my skin falling off and need dressings changed twice a week by the nurse. Complete failure of GP to refer me anywhere. So I may or may not be gluten intolerant, all I know is the one time I fell of the gf wagon (who knew that gluten was in diet coke?) I was once again scratching my skin off. btw if I have cheese I throw up. This may or may not be an intolerance, but I really miss cheese.

Heinz tomato soup is gf and so are baked potatoes. So are heinz beans. Aldi chocolate is gf. I do surveys for Amazon vouchers and get the gf oatcakes from there and have those with peanut butter or the tesco basic spreading pate. Home made popcorn is gf. Cheap tuna is gf. Loads of cadbury's stuff is gf.

Lots of lovely free stuff would be nice, but with so many alternatives, many of them inexpensive, it is hard to justify free pizza.

letmeeatpizza Thu 26-Mar-15 21:48:27
I've tried to make pizza bases, takes ages, trashes the kitchen and don't taste as good. If I didn't work full time and have a commute that would be a possibility, but I just don't have the time for that

Regardless of your dietary problems eating healthily requires a degree of effort. Laziness seems to be your issue rather than your intolerance. The NHS are trying to encourage people to cook from scratch rather than use pre-prepared goods as part of their diet so I think its pretty fair to stop supplying pizza bases as that's in line with expectations of everyone else. Bread on the other hand probably isn't something you would expect anyone to make.

In essence you are looking for preferential treatment to other people with specialist dietary and health needs and I don't see how they can be justified really.

I'm not asking for them to be free, just subsidised so I'm not massively out of pocket. I wish I could just pickup smart price pizzas for 25p each.

I wasn't aware that cardboard had gluten in it.

It IS greed on the part of the supermarkets. A value loaf of bread is 50p. GF bread starts at £2. Much the same for GF pasta.

Seriously though, take it up with the supermarkets. Don't blame the NHS for the issue. You are blaming the wrong group. You are having a cheap pop at someone and not seeing where the real problem lies. Most problems continue because people fail to properly examine the causes and what is causing the problem.

FWIW, I DO find it hard to believe that the cost of GF bread is this much more. But that also begs another question. If there is this demand why isn't someone identifying this and making not for profit / minimal profit GF products at a more affordable price? In fact the NHS offering prescriptions might be keeping prices artificially high and be part of the problem. I also personally don't believe you are at the mercy of supermarkets as supermarkets whilst dominating the market are not immune to public pressure or competition either.

On top of that I think one of the reasons GF items were available on prescription in the past was in part down to lack of availability in comparison with other products relating to allergies. That is no longer the case either so the need for prescriptions really has diminished.

who knew that gluten was in diet coke?

How is there gluten in diet coke?

www.coca-cola.co.uk/faq/ingredients/are-your-drinks-suitable-for-those-with-gluten-intolerance-coeliac-disease.html

It IS greed on the part of the supermarkets. A value loaf of bread is 50p. GF bread starts at £2. Much the same for GF pasta.

How is it the fault of the supermarkets? I imagine the manufacturers set the price. And they have probably invested millions in factories, recipe development etc.

Found a variation on the 2 ingredient pizza bases www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/10504/toasted-cumin-flatbreads
They look really good, easy to make and surely nicer than the ready made ones in the supermarket.
This site looks quite interesting as well glutenfreeonashoestring.com/

As somebody who has a child who is severely allergic (life threatening anaphylaxis) to gluten and dairy I have zero sympathy for the OP. Prescription foods are not available for people with severe allergies, only those with coeliac disease. I have always purchased everything required. Yes it is more expensive but there is no need to live on ready made pizza bases. There are plenty of things that can be eaten quite cheaply (fruit, veg etc). Things like GF pasta, GF bread etc just has to be eaten in moderation to keep costs down. There is no way that the NHS should be still giving out food to people on prescription when so many things can be bought in normal shops.