NHS ‘rationing’ treatment for eating disorder patients

People ‘literally on death’s door’ not being seen quickly enough, warns leading psychiatrist

- REBECCA THOMAS

Patients are being excluded from life-saving eating disorder treatment because 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 treat adult eating disorders, and say that these services should be receiving at least £7m per million of the 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.