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Nuffield Hospitals develop services for Allergy Sufferers
The helpline receives many calls from people wishing to access a private allergy clinic and until recently we have always been very wary of referring anyone to clinics outside of the NHS. There are a few allergy specialists known to us who offer this service and we have been able to refer accordingly but it has been a difficult area to manage as most of the specialists that we know able to offer a private service have been in the South East of England which isn’t of much use if you live North of Watford!
Patients choice has always been a leading principle of ours and although our first direction will always be to NHS allergy clinics some people wish to have private care for a variety of reasons, often because they are unable to obtain a referral to an allergy specialists as there isn’t one easily available, they wish to be seen quickly or at a time that is the most convenient for them. With private health insurance now so commonly in use we have seen requests for advice on private clinics growing.
Last year we were approached by Nuffield Diagnostics who wished to establish reasonably priced nurse led allergy clinics in their hospitals starting initially with Leeds and Derby but eventually rolling out to all of their hospitals throughout the UK. Given the reputation of the Nuffield Hospitals we saw this as an excellent step forward in meeting the needs of those who wished for a private clinic.
Nuffield were most anxious that the best possible service should be provided and wished to work closely with us to ensure this and that we would feel confident in referring to them anyone who wished for a private consultation. After extensive discussions Allergy UK have provided extensive advice and support to the Nuffield service, including training the allergy Nurses through both written and face-to-face training, and hands-on clinic experience until they are assessed as competent.
Patients can self-refer to the service, and at their appointment the Nurse will ask a range of questions to build up the relevant clinical and ‘allergy’ history, and then carry out either a skin prick test or IgE blood test, if this is appropriate. Based on the findings the Nurse can identify the likely allergens and then provide initial advice on symptom management. At the end of the appointment the patient’s details and a summary of the allergy findings are sent to Allergy UK (unless the patient opts-out) and the experienced Helpline staff at Allergy UK then provide further information and advice to the patient. Every patient will get a follow-up call to check on their progress and provide further advice and support as required; giving them access to the wealth of experience and information that Allergy UK can offer.
The Nuffield / Allergy UK allergy clinics are not intended to replace the specialist NHS allergy clinics; rather they fill the existing gap in services for those people suffering from more straightforward problems, which can nevertheless be frustrating and substantially affect the patient’s quality of life. Further information about the service can be obtained from the Allergy UK Helpline, or from the Nuffield Contact Centre on 0845 602 6442.