hildren and young people face a “postcode lottery” for treatment for eating disorders, psychiatrists have warned.
The Royal College of Psychiatry (RCP) warned that young people are increasingly being forced to endure long waits for NHS services and risk becoming “severely ill” before treatment.
It comes amid a significant rise in demand for eating disorder services, with a 51 per cent rise in the number of patients over the past three years.
Every single region across England is failing to meet the Government’s target for 95 per cent of urgent and routine patients to be seen within one and four weeks respectively after referral, the RCP said.
London has the shortest wait time for urgent referrals but the longest wait time for routine referrals, according to the RCP. Despite this, the RCP’s analysis found that the capital is cutting money for services by 2.6 per cent.
Meanwhile, the number of children and young people receiving urgent and routine care has risen by 66 per cent and 48 per cent in turn since 2019.
Dr Agnes Ayton, Chair of the Eating Disorder Faculty at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said: “It’s simply not acceptable that waiting times have increased when we are seeing record levels of referrals for children and young people. This is a warning that we gave three years ago and it beggars belief that nothing has changed.
“Admissions have been sharply rising since even before the pandemic, under 19’s now account for 30 per cent of hospital stays for eating disorders, with no sign of abating.
“We know that delays cause patients to become even more unwell, with potentially life-threatening consequences. Overstretched services are already struggling to meet demand, so how can we continue to subject these children and young people to a postcode lottery.”
The RCP has called for an increase in medical school places to 15,000 by 2028/29 to combat a workforce shortage in eating disorder services.
Dr Ayton said that there had been a 30 per cent increase in vacant or unfilled consultant posts in England since 2017, with child and adolescent psychiatry, as well as eating disorders psychiatry showing the highest number of vacancies.
Tom Quinn, director of external affairs at charity Beat, said: “Delays to treatment can lead to people becoming more severely unwell and in need of hospital treatment, which is why it’s so concerning that people are not getting the support they need quickly enough.
“The pandemic has had a devasting impact on people with eating disorders. At Beat, we provided more than triple the amount of support during 2021-2022 in comparison to before the pandemic, and we know that many people have felt increasingly isolated, anxious and distressed during the past few years.
“Many more children and young people have started NHS eating disorder treatment in comparison to before the pandemic, which is a testament to the incredible work of NHS staff. But demand for treatment has been increasing and NHS services are struggling to keep up.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We are committed to improving mental health services. Almost £1 billion is being invested in community mental health care for adults, including eating disorders, by 2024 and we’re providing an additional £54 million per year in children and young people’s community eating disorder services to increase capacity across the country.
“We’re also expanding the number of trainees and qualified practitioners able to deliver treatment for people with eating disorders, Health Education England (HEE) has developed training for primary care staff, and the General Medical Council (GMC) is working to improve recognition and treatment of eating disorders.”
