The number of patients suffering from serious allergic conditions has risen by more than a quarter in four years, but there is a serious shortage of specialists to treat them, The Times has learnt.

{mosimage}Experts call upon the Government today to take immediate steps to combat the “massive epidemic” of severe allergic conditions, which can be fatal in the worst cases.A report submitted to the Department of Health of data from GPs’ surgeries shows that by 2005 an estimated 12.2 million people in England had been diagnosed with an allergy-related illness such as asthma, eczema, allergic rhinitis, peanut allergy or anaphylaxis, the most severe form of allergic reaction.

All these allergies were more commonly recorded among patients from affluent areas compared with those from deprived areas, suggesting that the environment in which babies are brought up could have dire consequences for their future health. Reports from the Royal College of Physicians and the Department of Health have previously given warning that there are not enough specially trained doctors: there are only six specialist allergy centres in Britain.

Pam Ewan, a consultant allergist at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge and a member of the National Allergy Strategy Group, said that the NHS was still failing allergy sufferers at “a series of levels”.

“It is a massive epidemic, and the lack of provision is startling,” she said. “GPs are not well informed about allergy at all, but particularly about food allergy, and that is because they are not trained in it.

“So GPs have gained knowledge by self-learning or self-interest, then if a GP wishes to refer to a specialist he will have a problem because there is a very small number of these.”

Senior judges have issued a strong warning to divorced and separated mothers that they risk losing the right to have their children live with them if they defy court orders and stop the children’s fathers seeing them.

Complacent bishops and demoralised clergy have hampered the efforts of the Roman Catholic Church to overhaul its child abuse policies after a series of scandals, according to an official report published today.