Asked by: Mike Hill (Labour - Hartlepool)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to reduce waiting times for people seeking treatment for eating disorders.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
NHS England has introduced a new waiting time standard for children and young people’s (up to 19) treatment of eating disorders, setting an expectation that by 2020, 95% of those referred will start treatment within one week if the case is urgent and four weeks if the case is non-urgent.
Data published in the Children and Young People’s Eating Disorder waiting times data set is available at:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/cyped-waiting-times/
The data showed that:
- 71.0% of patients started urgent treatment within one week in Q2 2017-18; and
- 82.4% of patients started routine treatment within four weeks in Q2 2017-18.
There are 70 newly established community eating disorders services being developed and recruitment to get the teams up to full capacity is well under way. This means at least 3,350 children and young people a year will receive swift, effective eating disorder treatment in the community — for many this will mean they will be treated earlier and no longer need to go into hospital. Further information is available at:
A pathway for adults with eating disorders, together with detailed implementation guidance for providers, will be developed by the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health in partnership with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence over 2017/18. The pathway will be fully informed by the available evidence and the views of experts.
Asked by: Mike Hill (Labour - Hartlepool)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, for what reasons foetal alcohol spectrum disorder is not recognised as a mental health condition for the purposes of treatment.
Answered by Jackie Doyle-Price
Foetal alcohol spectrum disorder is a term used to describe a range of disorders and disabilities associated with prenatal alcohol exposure. It is not generally regarded as a single condition, but as an umbrella term that covers several alcohol-related medical conditions.
Foetal alcohol spectrum disorder can include physical or intellectual disabilities, as well as problems with behaviour and learning. Treatment services for people with foetal alcohol spectrum disorder will be different for each individual depending on the symptoms. It is for individual clinicians to make decisions on appropriate treatments, together with the patient or their families or carers, taking into account any relevant guidance.