Starved of funding: Kids face two-year wait for food allergy tests

Lack of funding and staff has led to waiting lists of up to two years for children to get food allergy tests in one south west Sydney hospital, as the industry faces a crisis due to a shortage of allergy specialists across Australia.

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Children with severe allergies are being forced to wait as long as two years for tests to find out exactly what foods could potentially kill them.

Doctors claim a lack of funding and staff have created a “critical problem” requiring urgent attention.

Head of Campbelltown Hospital’s Immunology Unit Professor Connie Katelaris said South-Western Sydney had more than 400 children on a two-year waiting list.

“We see an awful lot of children with complex food allergies, which means they are allergic to more than one food,” Prof Katelaris said.

“The ultimate test is the food allergen challenge test, which needs careful monitoring. It has to be done in hospital and each food challenge takes half a day. We have a very large caseload in Campbelltown and we need more staff.

“We have a critical problem.”

Sarah Santoso’s children, Hudson, 3, and Abigail, 8, both suffer from severe food allergies. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Campbelltown mother of three Sarah Santoso recently booked her toddler in for a food allergen test at Campbelltown Hospital and was shocked when told her son could not get in until 2021.

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Like his big sister Abigail, three-year-old Hudson is anaphylactic to peanuts, cashews and eggs. It means if he has too much exposure, he will go into potentially fatal anaphylaxis, which requires an epi pen to counter the effects.

“We can’t be spontaneous, we can’t go out or to another house,” she said.

“We have had a few near-misses where we have had to almost administer the epi pen, which is pretty confronting. We have to be on our toes all the time,” father Yongkie said.

Campbelltown Labor MP Greg Warren said the waiting list in his area was “simply unacceptable”.

A spokeswoman for the Sydney Children’s Hospital Network said the most severe cases are seen within three months.

“There is a shortage of allergy specialists across Australia,” the spokeswoman said.

The government has allotted $4.6m over the next four years to specifically address waiting times for children’s allergy testing.

Originally published as Starved of funding: Kids face two-year wait for food allergy tests