Town hall discussion on the treatment of eating disorders

This article features sensitive content around the treatment of eating disorders.

This article is co-authored by Litigation Assistant Lucy Upton.

In collaboration with NHS Resolution, Kennedys recently hosted a town hall event in Cambridge to discuss the provision of eating disorder (ED) treatment services across the East of England. The event served as a council of experts, including psychiatrists, gastroenterologists, primary care providers and commissioners, to discuss current practice around eating disorder treatment and to understand how services could be improved.

Objectives

The aim was to identify effective practice, as well as challenges faced by patients, clinicians, Trusts and commissioners, and to ultimately create a network of experts able to work through a wish-list of ideas and recommendations for change. Key speakers addressed a number of topics, including ED treatment in the community, acute inpatient ED treatment, as well as safety and learning improvements. Following talks by key speakers, attendees were invited to offer their own insights and experiences as clinicians and experts in this field.

Key points of discussion: areas of progress and opportunities for improvement

It was clear there has been good progress with the improvement of ED services in recent years. New services, such as virtual wards, have been developed to enable service users to access treatment whilst remaining at home and close to their support networks. There has also been a focus on multidisciplinary team meetings, ensuring collaboration between different professionals to provide holistic treatment and services to those with eating disorders.

A number of opportunities to develop and improve services were also identified. Challenges included difficulties with recruitment of staff to provide treatment to those with an ED, as well as a need for further integration of treatment services. In addition, the transition for an individual from discharge from an acute hospital setting to receiving holistic treatment, including accessing psychiatric and psychological treatment in the community was identified as an area that could be improved.

Insights from outside of the region: East London NHS Foundation Trust

Attendees also benefitted from insights from those with experience in transforming ED services from outside of the region. Dr Brian Sreenan, Consultant Psychological Lead for Disordered Eating at East London NHS Foundation Trust, spoke about a new community mental health transformation programme developed for treating patients across East London. The programme focuses on early intervention, creating community treatment initiatives to reduce waiting lists, as well as incorporating people with lived experience into treatment teams to improve services. The Trust has found that access to treatment improved, with people able to access treatment sooner as a result of the programme.

Wish-list

Over the course of the afternoon, a wish-list was drawn up with ideas for ways in which ED services could be improved. These ideas included:

• The development of more patient-centred care and personalised services and pathways.
• Implementation of evidence-based treatment pathways.
• A focus on ensuring agnostic organisational boundaries to promote provision of a seamless service for the patient.
• Maintaining a culture of collaboration and trust, both within and between treatment services, was also highlighted as a way in which effective provision of services could be ensured.

What’s next?

There was a real desire to build on the momentum generated from this forum by setting up a network of experts in ED from a multidisciplinary perspective who will regularly meet and hone ideas and opportunities.

We are helping to facilitate this network and will aim for the wish-list to be focused on and refined, encouraging evidence based initiatives to advance to commissioners; aiming for consistent excellence in ED services across the region.