A study, reported in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, found that whereas in England one in four people suffer from allergy, in Scotland it is one in three.

Allergic disorders accounted for more than 4% of GP consultations and 1.5% of hospital admissions and cost NHS Scotland more than £130m a year.

One of the main authors of the study Professor Aziz Sheikh, head of the allergy and respiratory research group at the University of Edinburgh, said that previous reports on allergy had overlooked Scottish data and described overall clinical provision in Scotland as ‘lamentable’.
Professor Jürgen Schwarze, from the University of Edinburgh, and chair of the Scottish paediatric allergy group, said that Scotland urgently needed additional investment into sustainable and equitable allergy services, an added benefit of which would be that Scotland, with its high prevalence of allergic disease, its stable population, and the ability to follow patients for a lifetime through their NHS registration number, could become an internationally leading hub for allergy research.

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First Published in October 2009

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