NHS waiting times for children with eating disorders reach record levels

The number of young people receiving NHS treatment for eating disorders has reached record levels, with waiting times for urgent cases tripling in a year.

The Royal College of Psychiatrists have warned the Covid pandemic has set treatment back for children “by years” and could leave lives at risk, adding that services were struggling to provide timely treatment in the face of “overwhelming” demand.

An analysis from the college, which compared data from April, May and June of this year to the same time last year, found the number of under-19-year-olds waiting for urgent treatment has more than tripled from 56 in 2020 to 207 in 2021, and the number of young people waiting for routine treatment had quadrupled from 441 to 1,832.

Dr Agnes Ayton, chair of the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Faculty of Eating Disorders Psychiatry, said “The pandemic has had a huge impact on children and young people with disruption to their schooling, social lives and home lives.

“Many young people have not received support early enough, causing their eating disorders to become much worse and harder to treat.

“Delays to treatment can put lives at risk.  Services are struggling with soaring demand, fewer beds because of social distancing and an ongoing shortage of specialist doctors.”

Dr Ayton added “The government made an ambitious commitment on waiting times, but the pandemic has set us back years.

“Urgent action is needed to ensure children and young people with eating disorders can get the help they need, when they need it.”

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Posted by Tony May, Partner/head of Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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