Gluten-free prescribing

Gluten-free prescribing

Thank you for your enquiry setting out your concerns regarding stopping gluten-free prescribing in Calderdale and Leeds.

We fully appreciate that this is not the outcome people would have wanted and understand that the cost-of-living crisis is very difficult for many people living in West Yorkshire.

As an NHS Integrated Care Board (ICB) we are looking at how we spend NHS money in West Yorkshire and what treatments we pay for. Up to now, some of these choices have been different depending on where people live.

We are therefore reviewing our commissioning policies to make sure everyone gets the same access to treatments, wherever they live in West Yorkshire. This will also make sure all our policies are in line with the latest expert advice. We are asking people and communities for their views on changes to some of these policies to make them the same across West Yorkshire. This has included access to gluten free food in Calderdale and Leeds.

The NHS began funding gluten-free products for people with coeliac disease and people with other gluten-sensitive conditions in the late 1960s when availability of gluten-free products was very limited. Once a wide variety of gluten-free products became available in supermarkets, many areas in England stopped providing them on prescription.

Gluten-free prescribing was stopped in Bradford District and Craven in 2016, and in Kirklees and Wakefield District in 2017. However, in Calderdale and Leeds limited gluten-free products were still prescribed.

At its meeting on 31 October 2023, the NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) Transformation Committee agreed that gluten-free prescribing would be stopped in Calderdale and Leeds to bring them in line with the other West Yorkshire places (Bradford District and Craven, Kirklees and Wakefield District). This does not apply to patients who require low protein gluten-free foods. 

It may be helpful to note please that we work alongside our colleagues as part of the clinical and care professional forum, which includes doctors, and that no decision is taken lightly.

All gluten-free prescriptions will be stopped from 1 April 2024 so patients will have an adjustment period of around five months to find ways to adapt their diets. Gluten-free prescriptions are not available for those newly diagnosed with coeliac disease from 1 November 2023.

Public involvement

Public involvement took place in two stages.

Stage 1 – patient involvement on the ICB recommendation for gluten-free prescribing. We asked for the views of patients who receive prescriptions for gluten-free products in Calderdale and Leeds. This process ran from 25 May to 21 June 2023. Patients were invited to complete a survey and tell us how stopping this prescribing would impact them and their families. This report Gluten-free prescribing involvement and equality report (June 2023) outlines what these patients told us.

Stage 2 – the second stage of involvement (13 July to 9 August) was open to anyone in West Yorkshire to share their views on gluten-free prescribing. Information about the recommendations and the link to the survey was posted on the Treatments paid for by the NHS web page and promoted via other communications channels including social media.

The information and link to the survey was also shared for people’s responses via the West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership’s communications and engagement leads, with programmes and stakeholders, and via its community networks. This report Treatments paid for by the NHS involvement report (September 2023) outlines what people told us.

We also met with Coeliac UK to discuss NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board’s recommendation to stop the prescribing of gluten-free products in Calderdale and Leeds in July 2023 to seek their views.

On 9 August 2023 (during stage 2 of involvement) Coeliac UK submitted this response to the involvement on the future of gluten-free prescribing which is included in the stage 2 report.

Coeliac UK asked the ICB for reassurance that plans would be in place to monitor impact if withdrawal of provision takes place in Calderdale and Leeds. The West Yorkshire places where gluten-free prescribing was stopped in 2016/2017 are sharing details of how this was implemented, and what measuring and monitoring processes are currently in place for coeliac patients in their areas. This includes supporting coeliac patients through healthcare professionals providing links through to national support groups. It is important that people with coeliac disease highlight any issues they are having accessing gluten-free products so that the healthcare professional caring for them can discuss the best possible options with them. NICE has this page on the management of coeliac disease, which is shared with people when they are diagnosed.

Any additional communications about managing coeliac disease are also shared with local community groups so that they can continue to help its local communities.

This also includes working with local partners to look at how people can be helped to access food suited to their dietary needs, for example Bradford District and Craven’s community networks help signpost people to where they can access gluten-free foods and information that helps support a gluten-free diet.

Thank you for your enquiry.