2023-06-16 17:09:26
Georgia East
news editor
Georgia East
news editor
Sneezing, coughing, itchy eyes, headache, fatigue: people with a pollen allergy have a hard time this hay fever season. Because of the warm, dry weather, there are extremely many pollen in the air. And climate change is likely to make it worse. But healthcare is already unable to cope with that, says the Dutch Association for Allergology (NVvAKI).
“The care for allergy patients is seriously lacking. There are too few hospitals that offer allergy care. GPs often do not even refer patients to a referral, even though they do have very serious complaints,” says Hanneke Oude Elberink internist and allergist at the University Medical Center Groningen. .
According to Oude Elberink, there are currently too few allergists. As a result, hay fever patients sometimes have to wait months for treatment.
Poor performance at work or school
A research in the scientific journal Journal of Health Economics showed in 2016 that children with hay fever score lower during the pollen season than their classmates without complaints. “It has also been proven several times that people who go to work with hay fever complaints perform less than normal,” says Hans de Groot, allergist at the Reinier de Graaf Gasthuis.
Hay fever patients, for example, are tired because of their medication and have a harder time concentrating. This often costs so much energy that people are too tired for social activities after work.
“Hay fever simply has a great effect on your daily functioning. We have seen that patients have had severe hay fever complaints for three weeks now that cannot be treated properly with their standard medication. The complaints break through.”
Flowering trees in particular are currently causing severe complaints. Although there are currently a lot of grass pollen in the air, it is precisely the number of tree pollen that has increased sharply in recent years:
At pollen counting stations in Leiden and Helmond, they see that trees flower much earlier in the year due to climate change. Researchers are starting to measure pollen earlier and earlier:
This pump measures how much pollen is in the air
De Groot is also disappointed by the shortage of allergy specialists. “It is unthinkable that people have to wait six months for treatment. Then the complaints are gone and the pollen season is over.”
Oude Elberink recognizes that. “And when patients are eventually able to go, the workload is often so high that allergy specialists can no longer cope with the work. At the moment, several practices are threatening to close because colleagues cannot keep up with the work.”
But even the patients who can be treated well by the GP sometimes get no further than the doctor’s assistant who refers the patient to the drugstore to get medication there herself. According to Oude Elberink, there is too little understanding of the impact of these types of allergic disorders, which may play a role in the lack of care. “Health insurers and hospitals must work together better and invest in allergy care.”
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