Got coeliac disease? You’re entitled to ‘free’ food

Calling all fellow coeliac disease sufferers! Did you know that if you’ve been officially diagnosed with this, quite frankly, rubbish condition, you’re entitled to ‘free’ bread and a selection of other gluten free foods on prescription?

I use the term ‘free’ loosely. Technically, you have to pay for a gluten free food prescription just as you would with a regular medicine prescription…NO DON’T LEAVE…because the good news is that for just £104 a year you can get as many prescriptions as you like. Let me explain…

What gluten free foods are available on prescription?

Each year I buy an NHS Pre-payment Certificate (PPC) for £104. I only use it to get bread and flour but it does entitle me to a year’s worth of the following:

• bread
• pasta
• flour
• breakfast cereals
• crackers and crispbreads
• pizza bases

Any medicine I need can also be included in this prepayment prescription too.

So no matter what it is you need, instead of paying £8 for each prescription like you usually would after a trip to the doctor’s, you can pretty much walk away with your grub or drugs for free after showing the pharmacist your prepayment card.

How much food can we get?

There are National Prescribing Guidelines that dictate how much food you can order on prescription each month. The gluten free foods available are split into units, so that you can mix and match certain things so that you can get the right foods for you.

You can find the full list of gluten free foods available on prescription here, along with the product names.

Is it easy to do?

There are gluten free prescription order forms available that you can print out and take to your pharmacy each time you want to place a gluten free bread order. You simply fill in your details, tick the foods that you want and hand them to your pharmacist to order. Usually it takes about a week for the food to arrive, and at this point you go back to your pharmacist to pick it up. It’s worth noting that some of the bread options come in large batches of approximately 8 loaves at a time, and so if you haven’t got a car you may have to do a few trips. You’ll also have to think about where you’re going to store all this bread to keep it fresh, particularly if you’re not blessed with tons of freezer space.

How much can a prepayment certificate save us?

According to the NHS website, a three month pre-payment certificate will save you money if you need four or more items in the three months. A 12 month PPC will save you money if you need more than 13 items in a year.

If you need two items each month you can save around £90 with a 12 month PPC.

If you need three items each month you can save around £180 with a 12 month PPC.

If you need four items each month you can save around £280 with a 12 month PPC.

It’s obviously not *just* coeliacs who can benefit from PPC certificates, if you suffer from a different illness or you’re just generally a sickly person who is always popping over to the doctor’s for something (I’m one of these people) you probably would be better off money-wise by getting a PPC.

If you decide to get a PPC, you can apply by:

• phone - 0300 330 1341
• post - download this form and post it to the address on there
• at a registered pharmacy
• online

Photo: Victoria Sponge (probably not gluten free, but you can make one that looks just as nice)