Anorexic turned down for NHS help was ‘not skinny enough’
A LAW graduate who suffers from anorexia has accused the NHS of putting her life at risk after she was told she wasn’t ‘ skinny enough’ when she begged for treatment.
Hannah Brown had been admitted to hospital twice before with the condition and recovered.
She then noticed signs of a relapse but said she was refused help on four occasions because a doctor and staff at a specialist service insisted she had not lost enough weight to be considered.
‘I was told by four people that my weight wasn’t dropping so I was not critical enough. In other words I wasn’t skinny enough,’ the 26-year-old said.
‘It’s all about preventing the disease before it gets critical. You shouldn’t have to rely on being a certain weight to get help. They should assess your mental state too. You should be able to get help before you become really ill.’
Miss Brown first realised she had the eating disorder when she was a 19-year- old law student. After graduating with a first she began a postgraduate diploma in legal practice in September 2012 but had to drop out after three months when her weight fell to six stone.
‘I was living off an apple and a bowl of soup and then doing an hour of running every day,’ she said. ‘The doctor said if I didn’t take the help he was giving me I would die.’ Miss Brown was treated for a few weeks by her GP before being voluntarily admitted to Bethlem Royal Hospital in south London for specialist care from January 2013.
She was discharged after three months but in July 2013 was admitted to Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge following a relapse.
With her law career on hold, she took a job as an art consultant on a cruise ship. But in January this year she realised she was ‘obsessing with food and exercise’ again. After returning to the family home in Langford, Bedfordshire, she tried to get professional help but was astonished to be turned away.
She contacted her GP and spoke to three people on different occasions at the Bedfordshire and Luton Community Eating Disorder Service but was told she would have to wait at least two months before her case was reviewed.
‘I was shocked. You can’t wait two months for help. You need it right away,’ she said. Miss Brown instead turned to a private serv- ice called Insight Eating and is receiving one-to-one treatment. She has set up a website, An Ear To Hear, to help other anorexics looking for guidance.
Bedfordshire and Luton Community Eating Disorder Service said an ‘oversight’ led to Miss Brown being offered a routine appointment instead of a priority one. She has since been offered an appointment which she declined, it said.
A spokesman added: ‘Patient care is of paramount importance to the trust and it apologises to Hannah for any distress.’