Eating disorders: Record number of young people wait for treatment as demand soars

Abstract

The Royal College of Psychiatrists has warned that the number of children and young people waiting for treatment for an eating disorder has reached record levels as services struggle to meet overwhelming demand. The college’s analysis of newly published NHS England data1 has found that the numbers of under 19s waiting for urgent and routine treatment are higher than ever before, while more young people are also being treated than ever before. At the end of the first quarter of 2021-22 (April, May, and June)—a year on from the start of the covid pandemic—207 patients were …

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