NHS eating disorder services forced to ‘exclude’ patients and ‘ration care’

As reported by The Independent, patients ‘literally on death’s door’ are not getting care quickly enough, warns leading psychiatrist

Patients are being excluded from life-saving eating disorder treatment as services are severely underfunded, experts have warned. Adult eating disorder services are so severely underfunded and understaffed that they are having to employ rationing measures and turn away patients, leading psychiatrist Dr Agnes Ayton told The Independent.

In their research, Dr Ayton and 22 other psychiatrists found that in 2019-20, just 31 per cent of eating disorder services accepted all patients, regardless of the level of illness. The researchers warned that the situation had become more serious following the pandemic, which had driven a “worsening of the demand and capacity” crisis across the services. Experts have called for emergency funding to meet the needs of adult patients with eating disorders, and say that these services should be receiving at least £7m per million population each year to meet standards.

Dr Ayton warned that patients who are “literally on death’s door” are not getting care when they need it. In an interview with The Independent, she said: “A lot of services are actually excluding patients. The services are so underfunded that they have to have some sort of rationing measure, which could be based on body mass index.”

Under current standards, eating disorder services should not refuse to accept a patient on the basis of their body mass index. According to the findings, just 54 per cent of services were able to offer treatment that met national standards, while 94 per cent had a waiting list, and just 34 per cent reported that they had received a funding increase since 2014-15.

Tom Quinn, director of external affairs for charity Beat, said: “It’s deeply concerning that adult community eating disorder services in England and Scotland are not getting the staffing or funding that they need, and this research must serve as a wake-up call for action.

“These findings highlight the lack of support for adults with eating disorders and the urgent need for investment, but given when this research was conducted we know that the situation is almost certainly worse than [has been] highlighted.” According to Beat, despite the guidance, patients are still being turned away from services on the basis of their BMI or the severity of their illness.

The NHS currently monitors waiting times and performance for child community eating disorder services, but does not have the same monitoring in place for adult services. Dr Ayton said that for adult services, patients could be waiting two years following a referral.