I HAVE read with dismay the plans for banning gluten-free food from NHS prescriptions.
As a diagnosed coeliac, I have been prescribed Juvela gluten-free mix on a regular basis (although not monthly).
I use this to make my own bread, cakes and pastry. I buy all my other GF requirements from supermarkets – even things like pasta, pizza bases and plain biscuits, which I could have had prescribed. I think just the flour mixes and bread are essentials and should stay on prescription.
I have spoken to Juvela today to ask how to obtain their product privately if necessary.
They said it would be available to order through a pharmacist and couldn’t give me a price, although they sell it to pharmacists at £6.93 per 500g packet. They said pharmacists add a mark up and the retail cost would be between £7.50 and £12 per packet. One packet makes one medium-sized loaf.
In the Oxford Mail, the Oxfordshire NHS spokesman said: “20 or 30 years ago, only a small range of gluten-free foods were available and these were relatively expensive.”
I agree that the amount of GF products available has increased greatly, but does he think £7.50 a loaf is not expensive?
Before making a decision to ban prescribing GF products, perhaps someone could do a test gluten-free weekly shop for one person – remembering that this will be probably on top of ordinary food for the rest of the family’s food bill.
MRS H KILLEEN Cromwell Way Kidlington
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