Allergy provision at Guy’s and St Thomas’ has doubled, with patients now being able to access a specialist five days a week instead of two, writes Kirsty Purnell…
The expansion came about following a re-location of the Adult Allergy Centre from St Thomas’ to a custom-made facility at Guy’s.
The new centre has been purpose-built for ‘challenge tests’ – a means of testing which involves exposing patients to small, increasing doses of a suspected allergen in a controlled environment.
Dr Rubaiyat Haque, clinical lead in the Department of Allergy at Guy’s and St Thomas’ said: “It is key to diagnose people through these challenges. Often people do not get access to the right facilities which can mean they think they have an allergy when they don’t.”
Allergy cases are reportedly increasing rapidly across the country, with Guy’s and St Thomas’ allergy department seeing an increase of 25 per cent last year.