The number of patients being admitted to hospital with life-threatening eating disorders has almost doubled in the past six years.
The Guardian obtained figures from NHS Digital which show that the number of men and women admitted to hospital with a primary or secondary diagnosis of an eating disorder reached a peak of 13,885 in the year to April 2017, up from 7,260 six years earlier in 2010-11. The number of women with this level of eating disorder women aged 19 and under dramatically increased from 1,050 to 2,025 over the period examined.
It is thought by some medical professionals that the surge is indicative of how NHS outpatient treatment is not working. This results in sufferers becoming more severely ill, and ending up in hospital.
In addition, eating disorder charity Beat said that calls to their helpline were likely to reach 17,000 in the financial year ending March 2018, up from 7,000 the year before.
'What is clear is that the system is not working at the moment,' said Caroline Price, Beat's director of services. 'What we desperately need is more money put into community services so people can get support close to home when they need it. This means we can intervene earlier and stop people ending up in hospital.'
