We know that it takes an adult an average 13 years from onset of symptoms to diagnosis of coeliac disease and raising awareness, particularly amongst GPs is so important to help more people secure a diagnosis.

The Royal College of General Practitioners Annual Conference was cancelled in 2020 due to Covid-19, but returned to Liverpool this October and we were excited to attend our first face to face GP event since 2019.

After 18 months of mostly working from home, at first it did feel a bit strange to be in a room bustling with over 1,000 GPs but we quickly fell back into the rhythm of speaking with GPs about coeliac disease and how they can make a huge difference by spotting the symptoms and offering a simple blood test. The event also gave us the chance to ask GPs how the last 18 months have been and how we can best support them with the current pressures on the NHS.

In preparation for the event, we updated our popular one page summary of diagnosis and management guidelines. Over the years, we’ve heard feedback from GPs that with so many conditions to stay up to date with, they need all the important information on one page. We were delighted to hear that some GPs have the summary saved to their desktops to refer to and one GP told us that she still uses the copy that she picked up when visiting our stand in 2019. As another GP said, “You’ve worked with GPs before, we love a one pager! You’re on point!”

Compared to the same event in 2019, it feels like there is an increased awareness of how common coeliac disease is, with lots of GPs being well aware of how underdiagnosed it is and the wide range of symptoms it can cause.

We also shared our annual review checklist which aims to support GPs in making sure they cover all the key points when carrying out an annual review. One GP told that she had carried out an audit in her practice which found that only three out of every 100 people with coeliac disease were being offered an annual review. As she said – “it’s a serious autoimmune condition affecting 1 in 100 people, so we need to do more” – I couldn’t agree more!

GPs at the event were really keen to learn more about coeliac disease and how they could support their patients. We were on hand to answer some frequently asked questions like:

• Should I add it to the list for tired all the time blood test check? – Yes, national guidelines recommend offering a test for coeliac disease to people with prolonged fatigue.
• Should I be testing people with iron deficiency anaemia for coeliac disease? - Yes, iron deficiency anaemia is common in people with undiagnosed coeliac disease.
• At what age can children develop coeliac disease? – coeliac disease can develop at any age after gluten is introduced to the diet.
• Should you ever re-test someone for coeliac disease? – Yes, coeliac disease can develop at any age so GPs should have a low threshold for re-testing.

Face to face events also give the opportunity to network with other exhibitors. We have many leads to follow up including opportunities to provide a talk to trainee GPs and to engage with other healthcare professionals that are increasingly working in GP surgeries, like physicians associates.

Later this month, we will be meeting with GPs with a special interest in gastroenterology at the Primary Care Society for Gastroenterology annual meeting.