(Sarah Marsh/ The Guardian) — Psychiatrists have warned of a “tsunami” of eating disorder patients amid data showing soaring numbers of people experiencing anorexia and bulimia in England during the pandemic.
Dr Agnes Ayton, the chair of the Eating Disorder Faculty at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said the number of people experiencing problems had risen sharply with conditions such as anorexia thriving in the isolation of lockdown.
She said: “We expect the tsunami [of patients] is still coming. We don’t think it has been and gone.”
She also noted that in Oxford, where she works, about 20% of people admitted were usually urgent referrals but this proportion had shot up to 80%.
Separately, data released on Thursday shows huge rises in waiting times for young people and children, with a 128% increase in the number waiting for routine treatment compared with last year. (…)