Desperate patients head for Sydney

CALL FOR CASH: Eating Disorder Association spokesman Peter Jeffries wants more funding.

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A lack of funding and facilities has "seriously sick" North Shore eating disorder sufferers heading to Sydney for treatment

Campaigners say young women with severe eating disorders can wait months to be seen at a hospital.

Some with intense conditions have to go to Sydney to receive inpatient care because there are no beds in Auckland.

Wellington and Christ-church both have inpatient facilities.

One North Shore family, who did not want to be named, say their daughter nearly died before getting treatment for an eating disorder.

She spent weeks on a waiting list for treatment at the understaffed and under resourced Eating Disorder Services at Greenlane.

By the time she was seen there her weight had dropped to about 35kg and she was deemed an urgent patient.

She was sent to Sydney for treatment and has only just returned.

Eating Disorder Association spokesman Peter Jeffries says that story is all too common.

His organisation appealed for more funding for Eating Disorder Services from Waitemata District Health Board at a meeting of its hospital advisory committee on August 13.

The association wants Auckland's health boards to fund inpatient services for people with eating disorders and beef up funding for outpatient services at Greenlane.

"For the families involved it’s hell.

"They're told to sit at home with their kid who is starving to death. Every day they watch their kid getting thinner and thinner."

He estimates there are about 35 people in the Waitemata district waiting for treatment at Greenlane.

"People at Eating Disorder Services are great but they're all screaming out that they're under resourced.

"Our dilemma seems to be that help comes extremely slowly.

"We want to know when the service will be provided. We want Waitemata DHB to demand a timeline."

At the August 13 meeting, the health board indicated sympathy for the association's cause.

Mental health general manger Helen Wood said the board supported building an inpatient unit in Auckland as soon as possible.

The Waitemata board had also approved funding for two more fulltime workers at the Eating Disorders Service this year, she said.

- © Fairfax NZ News