Demand for access to NHS services for those with eating disorders has reached record highs, statistics from NHS Digital show.
The number of NHS admissions for eating disorders in 2023/24 surpassed 30,000 for the first time, an increase of almost 60% on pre-pandemic levels.
A report from the Eating Disorders All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), published last week, shone a light on this and called for urgent national reform to address the ongoing eating disorder crisis in the UK.
In the report titled The Right to Health: People with Eating Disorders are being failed, Wera Hobhouse MP and chair of the APPG, highlighted the severity of the life-threatening mental illnesses and claimed they have been overlooked and underfunded for far too long.
She said: “Eating disorders have one of the largest treatment gaps in modern healthcare. The question must be asked: ‘Why, in the face of overwhelming need, are we still ignoring this crisis?’”
This comes following a serious increase in cases of adults as well as children and young people seeking help from the NHS since the Covid-19 pandemic.
The last reported data from NHS Digital shows the steep incline in urgent cases of eating disorders.
Further figures from NHS Digital revealed the number of children and young people with urgent cases waiting more than 12 weeks rising from four in Q1 of 2020, to 102 in Q1 of 2022.
Thomas Freeston, from UK eating disorder charity Beat, said: “Waiting times put in place for children and young people should be meeting the targets of ensuring that it’s 95% of urgent cases are seen within one week, with non urgent within four.
“Those targets of reaching 95% haven’t been met since they were introduced.”
Prior to the pandemic in 2020, the number of urgent cases waiting more than 12 weeks was steadily declining.
Lack of access to services is proving to be detrimental to those who have made the tough decision to reach out for help and are then not receiving it.
Hope Virgo, campaigner and secretariat of the APPG said in Women’s Health: “Over the last few years, the situation for those affected by eating disorders has worsened.”
When diagnosing a patient and their urgency for treatment, often BMI is considered, however the BMI system is becoming increasingly criticised by campaigners.
Virgo added: “People are being denied treatment for being “too thin”, “too sick”, “not sick enough”, or are being labelled “untreatable”, despite clear evidence that people with eating disorders can and do recover.”
Beat has estimated that more than 1.25 million people in the UK have an eating disorder.
However, this figure is based on outdated data and does not reflect the full range of conditions, which includes binge eating disorder, now five times more common than anorexia nervosa – the APPG report states.
Freeston added: “We realize that this might be understating it because there is a lot of stigma attached with eating disorders.
“It also doesn’t account for those families that are caring for someone a loved one with an eating disorder and the impact that that has on them as well.
“Although they don’t directly have the eating disorder, it impacts them emotionally and in other ways too.”
NHS Digital stopped reporting statistics on eating disorder wait times early in 2023 for children and young people and do not report any specific data on adults either.
Beat provides support for those waiting for treatment and is campaigning to the government for more funding and coverage for both adults and children and young people.
Prior to Covid, the support system for those affected by an eating disorder was already struggling, the pandemic adding further pressure to this has caused a crisis that is continuing to escalate.
Freeston said at a peak following Covid it had experienced a 300% increase in demand for its services and that has wait times had never recovered from that.
He said: “At Beat, we want to see the problem directly addressed.”
As with urgent cases, the number of routine cases of people with eating disorders waiting more than 12 weeks has increased significantly.
The statistics show that the number of cases has risen from 85 in Q1 of 2020, to 566 in Q1 of 2022.
The APPG report states these figures indicate ‘a large, often hidden population-level epidemic’, highlighting that a huge proportion of people are still falling victim to the stigma around the illness.
An NHS report that came out in 2023 reported that one in eight 17-to-19-year-olds had an eating disorder, with higher rates in women.
The APPG report shares accounts with patients, clinicians and families.
In the report, Ellie Smith, a 26-year-old who has battled anorexia for 14 years, shared the impact her illness has had and the systematic failures.
She said: “I have been through more heartache, trauma, loss and pain than most do in a lifetime. And it’s all down to my long-standing eating disorder.
“There are many people like me; I am not alone in this. Eating disorders ruin the lives of the sufferers and those around them. More understanding and help are needed because no one should be left to feel as if they can’t get better from what is a treatable illness like I have and certainly, no one should ever be dying from an eating disorder.”
With proven success rates in those recovering from eating disorders, campaigners like the APPG and Beat continue to lobby the government for action.
Talking in Parliament, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said: “NHS England is expanding eating disorder treatment services, including crisis care and intensive home treatment, and the Online Safety Act 2023 will prevent children from encountering harmful content that promotes eating disorders to services. Obviously, we will look very carefully at the report and consider its recommendations.”
NHS England were contacted for comment.
If you, or someone you know is struggling with an eating disorder, contact Beat, on 0808 801 0677 or email them at beateatingdisorders.org.uk.
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