THE number of people admitted to hospital with severe allergic reactions to food or insect stings has more than tripled in the past decade.

A government review of allergy services, published yesterday, gave details of the striking rise in cases of anaphylaxis — the most serious and potentially fatal form of allergic reaction. More than 3,000 people were admitted to hospital last year. Up to 20 of them died.

Yesterday’s report said that about a third of the total population — approximately 18 million people — will develop an allergy at some time in their lives. It accepted that there was a shortage of data because of a lack of national monitoring.

Experts estimate that asthma, rhinitis (hay fever) and eczema rates have increased by between two and threefold. Food allergies are among the fastest rising conditions, with peanut reactions trebling in the past five years.

The rise in the number of allergy sufferers has been linked to oversensitive immune systems caused by people living in increasingly hygienic environments. Other associations include increased consumption of exotic foods, such as kiwi fruit and sesame seeds.

The government report accepts that many allergy sufferers feel let down by the NHS. Some wait up to nine months to see a specialist, while charities and other groups are often left to plug the gaps in care. It adds that there is a need for action to improve services for asthma, rhinitis, eczema and acute allergic conditions, including extreme reactions to bee stings, nuts and some drugs such as penicillin.

However, health campaigners last night dismissed the review — which calls for better monitoring and training but does not commit any funding — for failing to tackle a spiralling problem and deferring responsibility to primary care trusts.

They said that it does little to address the shortcomings identified in two highly critical allergy reports from the House of Commons Health Select Committee and the Royal College of Physicians.

In a foreword to the report, A Review of Services for Allergy, Ivan Lewis, the Care Services Minister, said that doctors need better training and that there is a need “to remedy the shortage of specialist allergists”.

About three million people visit their doctor or hospital suffering from conditions related to allergies in England every year. About 2,400 people are admitted for eczema, and most are children, the report said.

Commenting on the 3,000-plus anaphylaxia cases last year, it added that some of the deaths “could potentially be prevented”.

Mr Lewis said: “The review has heard that people with allergies often feel let down by a poor and frequently unobtain-able service. For those living with an allergy severe enough to require specialist care, the lack of allergy services is a problem which can greatly affect their quality of life.”

The report found that many people did not feel that their GP understood their condition and put the NHS bill for managing allergic conditions at more than £1 billion a year.

“We need to ensure that GPs and others in primary care have clinical knowledge and support systems in order to spot allergy in the early stages, so that an effective management plan can be offered from the start,” the minister added.

But Muriel Simmons, chief executive of Allergy UK, accused the Government of “missing a major opportunity”. She said: “We were looking for a real investment in allergy and there has been none.”

The Anaphylaxis Campaign said it feared that lives would continue to be put at risk by the poor provision of care.

Pamela Ewan, a consultant allergist at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, and co-chair of the National Allergy Strategy Group, said the government recommendation for local authorities to assess patient need “will hardly scratch the surface of the problem”. She added: “This needs central direction and funding and cannot be left to devolved local systems, as the Department of Health proposes.

“That has been the situation for the last decade, and patient care has not improved.”

“While the recommendation to involve the medical royal colleges in producing guidelines is welcome, without funding, targets, and an increase in the number of doctors with expertise in allergy, we will be going backwards.”

Andrew Murrison, the Tory Shadow Health Minister, said: “Having presided over a postcode lottery in allergy services, ministers have told trusts that they will have to deal with the problem. As many are struggling with deficits it seems unlikely that many of them will be able to do so.”

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