A CHIPPENHAM family who rely on the NHS for a vital supply of gluten-free bread are going into the New Year fearing that the service will be cut, which could cost them hundreds of pounds and damage their health.

Steve Faulkner’s wife, Tamsin, and their six-year-old son, Jacob, rely on gluten-free bread as they suffer from coeliac disease, a lifelong condition which affects the small intestine, causing it to become inflamed and painful if they eat anything containing gluten.

The family spend £120 per year on a prescription which allows them to buy gluten-free bread through the NHS, but were horrified when they were told last week that the service would be stopped.

This week, Wiltshire’s Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) said that each year it spends nearly £300,000 on gluten-free prescriptions and that no decision has been made on whether the service will continue in Wiltshire.

“My wife has had this arrangement ever since she was diagnosed when she was about 18, this is standard NHS practice,” said Mr Faulkner, 41, who lives in Ailesbury Close, Chippenham.

“My wife made a phone call as she had a nasty ear infection and an NHS staff member chose to give her this information that the bread supply would be stopped.

“She was in tears and we’re extremely frustrated. We can’t influence that at all and they will just cut us off.

“Coeliac is not as bad as a nut allergy but it can cause intense stomach pain and long-term damage. There is also a risk of bowel cancer.”

A spokesperson for the Wiltshire CCG said: “Wiltshire CCG has a duty to plan and prioritise fairly and use the public money available to achieve maximum health benefit for people.

“Whilst we haven’t yet taken any decision to cease funding prescriptions for gluten-free food, it is something we will be considering in the New Year.

“It’s vital that, especially in the current difficult financial environment, commissioners make decisions based on careful examination of the value – that’s the cost versus the medical benefits – of each spending choice we make.

“Wiltshire CCG’s spend on gluten-free prescriptions in 2016 was almost £300,000. This is money that we were not able to spend in other areas that we feel could provide greater medical benefit to our residents.

“Each gluten-free prescription brings unavoidable costs to the NHS; in effect, the NHS has to pay a premium price for each product at a time when gluten-free alternative foods are widely available in supermarkets. This was not the case 30 years ago when gluten-free prescribing started.”