Over 670 people sent to general mental health facilities after seeking help for eating disorders

Sinn Féin's Mark Ward said adult patients cannot wait any longer for the Government to increase the number of eating disorder beds. Picture: Sasko Lazarov/RollingNews.ie

More inpatient and community services for people with eating disorders are required to prevent people from being admitted into general mental health inpatient services.

That is according to the eating disorder association, Bodywhys, after new figures provided by the Health Service Executive, from the Health Research Board, showed that 676 people who sought help from the HSE for eating disorders since 2018 have been admitted to general mental health facilities.

In the same period, 46 people received specialist inpatient treatment, according to the HSE figures. The latter was in St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin, which only caters for people in the CHO6 (Wicklow, Dun Laoghaire, and Dublin South East) area.

Ellen Jennings, Communications Officer at Bodywhys said: “The figures support the need for national specialist services, both inpatient and community, to reduce the numbers of people being admitted to inpatient in a general mental health inpatient facility.” 

The figures were provided to Sinn Féin’s spokesman on mental health, Mark Ward, through a parliamentary question.

He said adult patients simply cannot wait any longer for the government to increase the amount of inpatient eating disorder beds that are available to the public.

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He added that the figures showed that since 2018, less than 6% of adults who were admitted to hospital with a primary admission diagnosis of eating disorders received public specialist inpatient treatment in a dedicated eating disorder service.

He said: “Since 2018, there have been 718 adults admitted to hospital with a primary admission diagnosis of eating disorders. 

Only 46 of these patients received public specialist inpatient treatment in a dedicated eating disorder service.

It is an absolute failure of the State that only 6% of adults who were admitted to hospital with a primary admission diagnosis of eating disorders received public specialist inpatient treatment in a dedicated eating disorder service.” 

He said that eating disorders are the most fatal of all mental health conditions.

He added: “Currently, there are just three inpatient public beds available in Ireland, in St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin. 

This is completely unacceptable.

He acknowledged the HSE’s plan to increase adult inpatient capacity to 23 beds across the country but said: “We need to see these beds opened as a priority.” 

According to the HSE, timeframes have not been yet set out but the beds will include three beds in St Vincent’s University Hospital, five beds in North Dublin, five beds in Galway, and five beds in Cork.