Adult inpatient unit for eating disorders in the Lothians

Glasgow and Aberdeen have specialist inpatient services for adults with eating disorders, so why not Edinburgh?

If your life has been affected by an eating disorder, either as sufferer or carer, or you wish to help prevent someone else suffering the misery of this condition without the inpatient support they deserve from a capital city, please add your name to this petition.

With the dramatic increase in eating disorders over the last decade, services have not kept apace with need. Having been raised in Edinburgh, and having graduated as a doctor from Edinburgh university while suffering from anorexia, I feel I have been let down by a lack of inpatient services in my home town. My frustration is such that I now feel compelled to lobby the Scottish Parliament for an inpatient unit for adults with eating disorders in the Edinburgh and Lothians area preferrably attached to either St. John's hospital, Livingston or the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh where psychiatric and medical services could be combined.

For adults in Edinburgh and the Lothians, there is only an outpatients service provided through the Cullen Centre (Royal Edinburgh Hospital). This service is divided into the Anorexia Nervosa Intensive Care Team for those at extremely low body weights (BMI 13 or below), and a team for general help with eating disorders. This is good as far as it goes, but waiting times for general help can be up to nine months, and the length of a course of therapy is woefully inadequate due to the inability for existing resources to meet demand.

I've suffered from an eating disorder for twenty years, and I have twice had to be hospitalised for treatment. Both these times have involved leaving my home and family to stay in specialist units in either York and Glasgow as there were no specialist inpatient services in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland! These services were good, but continuity of care in the outpatient setting was impossible to deliver due to the distances involved. As relapse is most likely to occur in the immediate period after discharge, there is a wasted opportunity for recovery as the lack of continuity leads to unnecessary suffering.

Although now there is a small unit in West Lothian, this only caters for a tiny porportion of sufferers and only people up to the age of 35