BMA concerns at plan to close eating disorder ward
PAThe British Medical Association (BMA) has described an NHS trust's decision to shut a region's only adult eating disorder inpatientward as "deeply concerning".
Last month it was announced that the Richardson Eating Disorder Service at the Royal Victoria Infirmary (RVI) in Newcastle, which serves Tyne, Wear, Northumberland and north Cumbria, would shut by 31 July.
The trust said closure did not necessarily mean it would not provide such inpatient care in the future, but it was too early to know what its plans were.
BMA mental health lead Dr John Moore said it could mean people would need to travel further for specialist inpatient care, with the next nearest facility being in Darlington.
Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear Foundation Trust (CNTW) said the ward was being shut because the hospital needed to expand its urgent and emergency care facilities.
It said this had prompted it to consider what other options were available and "how best we can support our patients and staff, both now and in the future".
It said it would start a consultation over the long-term future of its adult eating disorder services and in the meantime it planned to expand its intensive day services from five to seven days a week.
The trust also said it planned to provide more support to its community treatment teams and other eating disorder day services.
Unlike the RVI's inpatient ward, where individuals can stay for several months, these services only treat people during the day.
'Extremely distressing'
But Moore said the ward's closure was "deeply concerning" and that, for many patients, dedicated inpatient wards were a "vital part of treatment" which could not be replaced by "intensive day services alone".
"This means patients with eating disorders severe enough to need inpatient care will need to travel much further, taking them away from family and friends," he said.
"The BMA believes eating disorder services must be properly resourced across the whole pathway, with sufficient inpatient capacity alongside community and day services, so patients receive the level of care they clinically need."
Tom Quinn, from the eating disorder charity Beat, said expansion of the trust's day services would hopefully mean more patients could stay at home to be treated.
But he said it was not clear what would happen to patients in the region who needed inpatient treatment if the Newcastle ward was not replaced.
"Being treated outside your local area, away from loved ones, can be extremely distressing and make recovery even more challenging," he said.
"It's therefore of the utmost importance that anyone with an eating disorder can still access inpatient care locally."
