Children with anorexia sent 100 miles for treatment

The Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCP) is campaigning to end inappropriate out of area placements.

Dr Ashish Kumar, chair of the RCP’s Eating Disorders Facility, said forcing children to travel hundreds of miles for treatment put their health at risk and was costly to the NHS.

“Eating disorder services are stretched thin due to staff shortages and chronic underfunding,” he added.

The eating disorder charity Beat has called on the government and NHS England to better fund and staff the service.

Tom Quinn, the charity’s director of external affairs, said they must “take urgent action to improve recruitment and retention of staff to make sure eating disorder funding reaches the front line”.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said it was “determined to support children with their mental health” and was “investing an additional £2.3bn a year into NHS mental health services”.

They added the government was increasing capacity at children and young people’s community eating disorder services across the country.

A spokesperson for NHS England North East and Yorkshire region said that they acknowledged more funding was still needed, and that they were “focusing on strengthening early intervention while ensuring swift access to specialist support as soon as an eating disorder is suspected”.

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this story you can visit BBC Action Line.

Additional reporting from Miguel Roca-Terry and Jonathan Fagg

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