Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many people have been diagnosed with an eating disorder in the last three years.
The available information is shown in the following table covering England only.
Year | Primary diagnoses of eating disorders in secondary acute care services (finished admission episodes1) | Primary reason of eating disorders for referral to specialist secondary mental health services (patients) |
2017-18 | 3,064 | 18,216 |
2018-19 | 3,464 | 22,330 |
2019-20 | 3,449 | 28,310 |
Source: | Hospital Episode Statistics (HES)2, NHS Digital | Mental Health Services Dataset (MHSDS)3, NHS Digital |
Notes:
1 A finished admission episode (FAE) is the first period of admitted patient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. FAEs are counted against the year or month in which the admission episode finishes. Admissions do not represent the number of patients, as a person may have more than one admission within the period.
2 Changes to Hospital Episode Statistics figures over time need to be interpreted in the context of improvements in data quality and coverage, improvements in coverage of independent sector activity and changes in National Health Service practice.
3 There are data quality issues with the MHSDS and increases in numbers may be the result of improving coverage and data quality rather than a true reflection of service activity.