Patients 'not thin enough' for help as NHS is gripped by eating disorder crisis

Desperately ill people with eating disorders are being refused NHS treatment for “not being thin enough”, as new figures reveal the health service is in the grips of a growing eating disorder crisis.

- REBECCA THOMAS

Shocking figures obtained by The Independent show at least 5,385 patients – the overwhelming majority, 3,896, of which are children – were admitted to general wards for conditions such as anorexia and bulimia in 2021-22, more than double the number than in 2017-18.

It comes as separate analysis of NHS figures suggests the number of children being treated for eating disorders more than doubled from 5,240 in 2016-17 to 11,800 in 2022-23.

Children’s commissioner for England, Dame Rachel de Souza, who released the figures, also highlighted a huge surge in young people waiting more than three months to begin treatment, from 16 per cent in 2016-17 to 45 per cent.

Doctors and charities warn limited access to community services means both children and adult patients are not able to access treatment quickly enough, which has led to many becoming so ill that they need urgent hospital care.

One young woman told The Independent she had been rejected twice from community eating disorder services in London because her weight was not considered low enough for treatment.

She said: “To actually tell a patient they are not ill enough is so disruptive, it’s bordering on abuse. You wouldn’t tell a blood pressure patient to come back when your blood pressure is even higher or you’ve had a stroke. Yet patients are being told to lose more weight or ‘come back when you’re more ill’.”