‘Starve to get anorexia help’
Children and teenagers facing longer delays as charity warns growing crisis is putting lives at risk
YOUNG people with anorexia are effectively being told to starve themselves in order to get help, charities have said as The Sunday Telegraph today exposes a crisis in NHS treatment for eating disorders.
In just two years there has been a 36 per cent drop in the number of hospital appointments available for patients with eating disorders. Waiting lists in some areas are now reaching 16 months, forcing many children and teenagers to travel for miles to get treatment. Psy- chiatrists told this newspaper that they often have to send patients away from their families in search of a bed, including from Leicester to Edinburgh.
An NHS audit of services for young people has revealed that just one in six areas is meeting new targets of a fourweek waiting time for most referrals and one week for “urgent” cases.
Andrew Radford, of the eating disorders charity Beat, called the disclosures “alarming” and said they were evidence of “horrific rationing of care”.
THOUSANDS of children and teenagers with anorexia are being forced to wait months for help, amid growing pressure on services to treat eating disorders. An investigation by The Sunday Telegraph reveals a dramatic fall in provision of hospital appointments for the condition, forcing patients to wait longer, with some in need of inpatient care travelling hundreds of miles.
The NHS data shows that in just two years, there has been a 36 per cent reduction in the number of hospital appointments for people with eating disorders across the country.
Meanwhile, an audit of services for children and teenagers shows that only one in six areas is meeting standards intended to speed up treatment for the most vulnerable.
Charities said last night the disclosures were “alarming” – reflecting a “national scandal” in care of the most vulnerable. Some patients were effectively being told that they could not get help until they had starved themselves further, they warned.
NHS data obtained by this newspaper shows that in 2015-16, health services in England carried out 14,847 outpatient appointments for patients with eating disorders, a drop from 23,266 in 2013-14.
Experts said waiting lists were now reaching 16 months in some parts of the country, with young patients in need of admission being sent from Leicester to Edinburgh in search of a bed.
Last night Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, pledged sweeping improvements in access to services. “When children are in urgent need of support from the NHS it’s vital that they get fast, high-quality care – and clearly in some of the cases highlighted this simply has not happened,” he said.
“While mental health services have for too long been a poor relation to physical health, as the Prime Minister has said, we are determined to turn this round.”
The Government has promised a “revolution” in mental health treatment, with specific targets to speed up access to help for children and teenagers with eating disorders. The standards include a four-week waiting time for most referrals, dropping to one week for cases that are identified as “urgent”. But an audit of NHS services, seen by
The Sunday Telegraph, shows just 14 per cent of areas referring urgent cases within a week, while only 18 per cent managed to ensure remaining cases started treatment within a month.
In total, one in six areas was compliant with both standards, the report from August shows.
The NHS does not publish official figures on waiting times for treatment for eating disorders, although it has promised to start publishing those for children and young people from May.
The Royal College of Psychiatrists warned last night that some patients were waiting as long as 16 months for help, amid a growing NHS financial crisis.
Dr Agnes Ayton, vice-chairman of its faculty of eating disorders, said: “We are seeing waits of up to 16 months for non-urgent referrals. It is really worrying, because we know the more quickly people start receiving treatment the quicker they are to respond to it.”
The consultant psychiatrist from Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust said strain on NHS finances was forcing patients to wait. “A lot of trusts are trying to make savings at a time when we have seen a huge increase in demand,” she said. Andrew Radford, the chief executive of Beat, the UK’s charity for eating disorders, said the situation had become “a national scandal”.
“These figures are evidence of fairly horrific rationing of care – whether it means longer waiting times or fewer appointments once you are in the system,” he said. “This is threatening lives.”
Mr Hunt said by 2020, 95 per cent of children with suspected eating disorders would be seen within the four and one-week target times, thanks to a £150 million investment in services.
Consultant psychiatrist Dr Navjot Bedi, who runs an inpatient unit for adults at the Glenfield Hospital in Leicester – the regional unit for the East Midlands – said its waiting times had doubled over the past decade, from four to eight weeks.
‘This is evidence of horrific rationing of care, whether it means longer waiting times or fewer appointments’