Dr Chris Steele MBE Hands in Petition on Coeliac Disease to 10 Downing Street

Dr Chris Steele MBE, today, 2nd February 2010, handed in a petition to 10 Downing Street, calling on the Government to help improve the diagnosis of coeliac disease, a condition with which he has just been diagnosed.

The petition, signed by 8,783 people, is asking the Government to find the 500,000 people in the UK who are at risk of serious of damage to their health from undiagnosed coeliac disease by introducing a target for diagnosis of the disease in the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) of the GP contract.

1 in 100 people in the UK has coeliac disease but only 1 in 8, or 12.5%, of these has been diagnosed. Currently GPs do not have a target in their contract to diagnose coeliac disease. By including a target into the QOF, GPs would have to deliver better diagnosis rates of coeliac disease. This would reduce the number of people at risk of serious long-term health problems and help find the missing half a million people who have coeliac disease but don't know it.

There is no cure or medication for coeliac disease and the only treatment is a life-long, strict gluten-free diet. Without a gluten-free diet, coeliac disease can lead to infertility, multiple miscarriages, osteoporosis and bowel cancer.

Dr Chris Steele MBE and resident doctor on ITV’s This Morning has been Ambassador of the charity, Coeliac UK, for the past three years. Ironically, in January 2010, Dr Steele announced live on ITV’s This Morning that he had been tested and subsequently diagnosed with coeliac disease.

“I have supported the need to raise awareness of diagnosing coeliac disease for many years but never thought that I would be diagnosed myself! It is a condition often over looked and misdiagnosed by GPs, which has resulted in half a million people in the UK currently undiagnosed. Consequently, people are suffering unnecessarily for many years which can also lead to an increase risk of osteoporosis and bowel cancer,” said Dr Steele.

“There is also the possible increase cost to NHS caused through undiagnosis, by ongoing repeat visits by patients to their GP, and we also know of people having unnecessary operations such as gall bladder removal when a simple blood test could start the road to diagnosis; so I urge the Government to include a target for coeliac disease into the Quality and Outcomes Framework,” he added.

The symptoms of coeliac disease range from the mild to the severe and vary between individuals. Symptoms include abdominal pain, nausea, constipation, diarrhoea, tiredness, anaemia, headaches, mouth ulcers, weight loss – but not in all cases, skin problems, depression, joint or bone pain and nerve problems.

Press Release Supplied By health4media.com