Health: Eating Disorders

Baroness Walmsley Excerpts
Tuesday 19th January 2021

(3 years, 10 months ago)

Lords Chamber
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Lord Bethell Portrait Lord Bethell (Con)
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My Lords, I recognise the issue of regional disparities, but I reassure the noble Baroness that our ambition is to deliver swift access to treatment for 95% of children and young people with suspected eating disorders within one week. The good news is that in the second quarter of 2021, 83% of urgent cases were seen within one week and 89.6% of routine cases were seen within four weeks. Those figures can be improved but I think that they are impressive. They show that progress is being made and that we are taking this issue seriously.

Baroness Walmsley Portrait Baroness Walmsley (LD) [V]
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My Lords, the eating disorder faculty at the Royal College of Psychiatrists has recently reported that eating disorder teams are being asked to ignore the NICE guidelines for treatment as being unrealistic and too expensive. Will the Minister either justify this or condemn it?

Lord Bethell Portrait Lord Bethell (Con)
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The noble Baroness brings to my attention something concerning. I would be grateful if she would write to me with the details and will be very happy to look into it in more detail.