The right to health: People with eating disorders are being failed (22 January 2025)

Summary

This report from the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Eating Disorders highlights the urgent need for a national strategy to address the growing eating disorder crisis in the UK. It is based on evidence given by people with eating disorders, carers, healthcare professionals, managers and academics, alongside information obtained from Freedom of Information requests and data analysis.

You can find out more about this report in this blog by Hope Virgo, author and Secretariat of the APPG.

Content

The report reveals that:

• people face significant barriers to accessing treatment.
• healthcare providers are insufficiently trained.
• care pathways are fragmented.
• there is a lack of standardised data around eating disorders.
• there is a postcode lottery in service provision.
• patients are at times being discharged from services with dangerously low BMIs.

The report makes five recommendations that call on the Government to:

1. develop a national strategy for eating disorders.
2. provide additional funding for eating disorder services This funding should address the demand for both adult and children’s services.
3. launch a confidential inquiry into all eating disorder deaths.
4. increase research funding for eating disorders: The aim is to enhance treatment outcomes and ultimately discover a cure for eating disorders.
5. ensure non-executive director oversight for adult and children's eating disorder services. This oversight and accountability should be implemented in all NHS Trusts and Health Boards in the UK.