The father of a teenage girl battling a severe eating disorder has urged health bosses to improve north-east services after his daughter was forced to stay almost 60 miles away for three months for treatment.
The Aberdeenshire man, who did not wish to be named, said his then 15-year-old’ girl’s anorexia first began early 2016, and began to have a devastating impact on her health later that year.
At her worst, she was only eating 60 calories a day – doctors recommend between 1,800-2,600 for older teen girls – and her relationship with her family had completely broken down.
“It’s like an abusive boyfriend, she knows it’s no good for her but she can’t get rid of it,” the father said.
However when her parents sought help, they discovered that the nearest in-patient service was the Dudhope Clinic in Dundee, where she remained for three months.
NHS Grampian has an out-patient service, the Fulton Clinic, and a service for adults, the Eden Unit.
He said: “It was an incredible strain on my wife and I, we had to basically drive down every night after work and also arrange for childcare for our son.
“For us, we were lucky in that we could afford to get up and down and also have family that can look after our son, but there must be lots of people out there who can’t afford it.
“It just strikes me as unbelievable that there’s no similar service in a city the size of Aberdeen.
“The idea there’s not a demand for it is ridiculous – there’s a girl from our daughter’s school who’s also at the Dudhope.”
Grampian has said that no single board can treat eating disorders on its own so resources have been pooled to create regional units.
Tayside and the Highlands do not have adult in-patient units.
Meanwhile, Aberdeenshire West MSP Alexander Burnett has called for the Scottish Government to ensure that people with eating disorders in the region do not lose out due to NHS funding shortfalls in the region.
He said: “My concern is that a lack of resources could have a negative effect in areas that are seeing a surge in admissions, such as treatment for eating disorders.
“Recent statistics have shown a huge national increase in the number of acute cases – people requiring hospital treatment – and a doubling of admissions in Grampian in the last ten years.”
