Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the impact of the outbreak of covid-19 on the demand for urgent NHS specialist eating disorder treatment in Kent and Medway.

We have made no specific assessment.

However, NHS England and NHS Improvement have advised that Kent and Medway’s All Age Eating Disorder Service (AAEDS) introduced the role of a paediatric liaison nurse to aid collaborative working links between services and improve the patient journey. This role also allows for specific eating disorder training to be delivered to acute care colleagues. AAEDS has also introduced bi-weekly meetings between the service, acute medical wards and the provider collaborative to allow prompt, safe discharge from acute medical wards.

Since March 2020, an additional £1.7 million has been invested in the Kent and Medway AAEDS to address increased demand and complexity of cases. There are plans through adult community mental health transformation to further enhance the service with investment proposed during 2022/23.