6 November 2018

The Department of Health & Social Care (DHSC) has today, 6 November, published its report outlining the results of its recent consultation on the future of gluten free prescribing in England. 

The consultation closed on 1 October and NHS England is due to publish national guidance for CCGs in England later this year, which is hoped to encourage alignment of local policies with national guidelines/regulations. 

Our statement on this is as follows:

We are reassured to see that the Department states that ‘the new regulations are intended to reduce the variation in the provision of gluten free foods that are currently prescribed by Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) in England’ and also that ‘CCGs are encouraged to align their local policies with the amended regulations.’ We want to see this lead from the Department to stop the use of exceptionality criteria as a means to effectively deny access to all.

We will continue to push for the national recommendation in CCGs in England, to make sure people with coeliac disease have the support they need to manage their gluten free diets.