
By Professor John Robertson OBA
Thanks to https://bsky.app/profile/keepinfairlieweird.bsky.social for alerting me to this.
From BBC Health today:
Lives are being lost and families torn apart because of “woefully inadequate care” for people with eating disorders, according to a group of MPs.
The “alarming” rise in disorders such as anorexia and bulimia, over the past decade, has now become an “emergency”, the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Eating Disorders says in a report.
The report refers to figures showing a growing number of people affected:
- 12% of all 17-19-year olds – and nearly 21% of young women – have an eating disorder, a 2023 mental-health survey, external suggests
- two to three million UK adults of all ages could be affected at some point in their lives – similar to the number of people with diabetes, other research, external suggests
- hospital admissions for eating disorders in England, external have steadily increased since 2000 and surged since the pandemic, with more than 31,000 admissions in 2023-24
The report says services are “grossly” underfunded, there are barriers to accessing treatment and wide variations in care quality across the UK.
The above 2023 Mental Health Survey is England-only. The ‘other research’ is England-only too so all three sources of evidence are England-only.
If this is a problem across the UK, how then is this possible?

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Keep up , John !
When they say England they mean the UK ; when they say the UK they mean England ; when they say Scotland they say …”What ?”
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Oh the irony of this – the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Eating Disorders, who stuff their faces daily on fine foods in Westminster’s restaurants at our expense – not to mention stock the larders in their second homes at our expense too.
But on the question of how this is a problem across the UK – it’s surely because our NHS resources are being used by others, which must have some sort of adverse effect on us? And all the while, English politicians and media sneer at us whilst wrongly claiming that our NHS is performing poorly.
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Do ENHS not reimburse SHNS for using their resources?
Or do we get more money from WM to allow for ‘over-the-Not-Border’ patients from another NHS?
I bet their beloved private sector doesn’t do whatever they do for free. Surely SHNS isn’t expected to…(/s)
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