Escalation in young girls admitted to hospital with anorexia
The number of anorexic girls who end up in hospital has risen by 80% over the past decade.
The new figures showed that children as young as nine are being rushed to hospital after becoming seriously ill by starving themselves almost to death.
Susan Ringwood, chief executive of the UK eating disorder charity, beat, said the rise in admissions could be due to delayed treatment for anorexia.
She said: ‘We can’t tell if there’s more people actually suffering from an eating disorder or whether it’s just that more are getting admitted to hospital.’
Research by beat found that very few people with an eating disorder get a good experience when they visit their doctor.
Ringwood explained: ‘There’s a lot of people being told to wait and see and come back again and they get very, very ill before they get any treatment. We think that's a real factor in the number of people being admitted.’
The data was revealed by a parliamentary question asked by a Liberal Democrat MP.
Overall, there have been 3,247 admissions to hospital for anorexia among girls aged 16 and under since 1996/97.
There were also 306 admissions among boys aged 16 and under.
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