Mental Health: Eating Disorders

Baroness Finlay of Llandaff Excerpts

Monday 25th February 2019 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford]

First, at the beginning of Eating Disorders Awareness Week, I pay tribute to mental health professionals, charities, researchers and campaigners who have done so much to raise awareness, fight stigma and help the Government and the NHS improve mental health services over recent years. The noble Baroness is absolutely right that, while we have made a lot of progress with children’s eating disorder services, we must not forget adult services. That is why the NHS Long Term Plan has committed to test four-week waiting times for adults and older adult community mental health teams. We have not exactly pinned down what the scope of these pilots will be, but we expect that areas in receipt of new funding will be those that will expand those services.

[Baroness Finlay of Llandaff (CB)]

My Lords, given the high mortality and morbidity in both adult males and adult females—particularly university students who may be postgraduate students and who, at the time of presenting, may not have significantly changed their body mass index but whose risk of dying actually goes up enormously if they are not referred at that point—will the Government undertake to request that contracts from NHS England to services no longer require body mass index as a referral criteria? I declare my interest as chair of governors at Cardiff Metropolitan University.

[Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford]

The noble Baroness is exactly right. NICE clinical guidance is clear that people should not be rejected for treatment solely on the grounds of their weight or body mass index. This is an issue that Hope Virgo in particular has campaigned on very effectively to improve awareness of treatment of eating disorders. She has discussed her campaign with NHS England and the department, and I am pleased to confirm that my ministerial colleague Jackie Doyle-Price will meet her in the coming weeks to see what more can be done.