An analysis reveals that most NHS integrated care boards in England plan cuts to specialist eating-disorder services for children and young people in 2024-25. While NHS overall spending is set to increase by 2.9%, 24 out of 42 boards will reduce their budgets for under-18s, raising concerns from the Royal College of Psychiatrists about the adequacy of this funding to meet rising demand. With increasing referrals and over 6,000 young people on waiting lists, advocates like Veronika emphasize that these cuts could have a catastrophic impact on health outcomes.
"Shrugged off" by services in the past, Veronika says cuts could be "catastrophic" for people like her, impacting help-seeking behavior drastically.
Eating disorders, particularly anorexia, have high rates of mortality yet are facing crucial funding cuts, which will worsen service accessibility and response times.
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