Six-Stone Anorexia Victim Can’t Get A Hospital Bed

A desperate mother has appealed for help to save her anorexic daughter whose weight has plummeted to less than six stone. Hannah Downie, 17, is seriously underweight. But despite the severity of her condition, doctors are unable to help her because of a lack of services in Scotland.

The teenager has been forced to give up school because she is so ill and her parents fear she is losing a race against time to get the help she needs. Faced with the prospect of a daughter who refuses to eat, Barbara Downie, Hannah’s mother, was told by doctors to treat the girl at home.

“I’ve run out of hope,” the mother-of-five said yesterday. “Hannah doesn’t want to eat. She’s admitted she would happily starve herself to death. She needs proper medical help but she’s not getting it. The NHS doesn’t have enough beds and they’re dragging their heels about getting her into a private clinic.”

Hannah, from Brechin in Angus, was a normal, healthy teenager, and weighed around nine stone until a year ago. Jer mother said she noticed a gradual change in her behaviour as she became more quiet and self-conscious. Her weight has now fallen to dangerous levels and she is at risk of heart attacks and osteoporosis.

Hannah, who is 5ft 6ins tall, has been prescribed prozac and spends most of her time cooped up in the family home. Her story highlights the growing problem of anorexia in Britain and the lack of adequate facilities.

Experts insist Scotland trails behind England in its approach to treating people with eating disorders. Last July, Bryan Lask, professor of child and adolescent psychology at the University of London and one of Britain’s foremost experts on anorexia and bulimia, told The Scotsman that the system for treating people with eating disorders in Scotland was “positively dangerous”.

And last June, a damning report into the death of Lindsay Weddell, who died aged 20 weighing just six stone after suffering anorexia, accused health boards across Scotland of failing to provide “vitally important” services for people with eating disorders.

The NHS in England must follow official guidelines for treating those with the illness, but in Scotland there is no specific advice for GPs and only two centres operated by private companies to treat anorexics and bulimics. There are no specialist adult in-patient beds for severely ill patients, yet in each GP practice there are estimated to be at least two people with anorexia and up to 20 with bulimia. Specialist care is delivered through private clinics in Edinburgh and Glasgow, costing around £3,000 per patient per week.

Ms Downie sought medical advice and Hannah was diagnosed with anorexia, but as there are so few NHS beds for anorexia sufferers, Hannah was sent home. Ms Downie says she can’t afford to send Hannah to a private clinic.

Hannah, who has a body mass index (BMI) of just 14.2, said: “I didn’t feel good about myself. I thought losing weight would make me feel better. It hasn’t. I just want all this to go away.”

Around one in every 100 young people aged between 12 and 25 in Britain has anorexia. The incidence of bulimia is at its worst among college-aged people, where 4 per cent of the population has the disease. And the age profile of anorexia sufferers is falling, with the youngest recorded case in Britain just eight-years-old.

Diane Whiteoak, of the Huntercombe Hospital in Edinburgh which specialises in eating disorders, said:”A BMI of 14 or less is a very serious condition. It’s at this point some people find themselves unable to function properly. People who live with anorexia can’t live a normal life. It has a huge impact and causes upset [for] the people around them.”

A spokeswoman for NHS Tayside refused to discuss Hannah’s case, but said: “Any patient in Tayside clinically assessed as requiring inpatient care for an eating disorder will be admitted to hospital in the NHS or private sector.”