Adults with eating disorders in England They are waiting up to 700 days for life-saving treatment, according to the report.
The shocking figures were revealed in the first report of the National Audit of Eating Disorders (NAED), which looked at access to eating disorder treatment services across the country.
The audit, commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Partnership and funded by NHS England, found that there are more community groups providing support to children than adults.
On average, adults with eating disorders had to wait twice as long as children for evaluation and more than 10 times longer for treatment. found the report.
Eating disorder charity Beat said the “growing inequalities” between services for children and adults were “particularly worrying”.
The NAED report, based on data collected between January and May this year, said there were 93 community teams and 54 residential teams for children and young people, compared with 69 community teams and 33 residential teams for adults.
The audit found the national average wait for community care for children and young people was 14 days for assessment and four days for treatment, but some waited up to 450 days for treatment.
For adults, the national average wait time was 28 days for testing and 42 days for treatment, with some waiting as long as 700 days for treatment.
The report said a total of 3,855 people were waiting to be assessed by the community care team and 4,537 people were waiting for treatment.
Of those community groups that have waiting lists, 71% said the most common reason was “excess demand.”
Tom Quinn, Beat's director of external affairs, said the audit was a “vital first step” to understanding service delivery in England and improving care for people with eating disorders.
He said community health staff were “doing everything they can” to support people with eating disorders, but some patients were still facing “devastating” news that local support was not available to them.
He added: “It is particularly worrying to see the growing disparity between provision of services for children and adults, with longer waiting times, unavailable or non-existent self-referral options and the patchy availability of services seen in adult care.
“There is also a veritable postcode lottery for certain eating disorders such as binge eating disorder, Arfid. [avoidant restrictive food intake disorder] and nocturnal feeding syndrome.
“We know from our community that asking for help takes a lot of courage, so reporting a lack of local support can be devastating.
“Being able to continue to live at home often leads to better outcomes, so we encourage anyone who might benefit from this to provide access to an intensive community or day service near them.”
An National Health Service A spokesman for England said: “While it is encouraging to see that on average children are seen within two weeks of an announcement, we are determined to ensure that everyone of all ages has quick access to support, which is consistent across the country.
“Every local health system now has at least one dedicated eating disorder service serving adults and children, and we will use the findings of this report to help NHS teams reduce waiting times for all patients.
“It is important that people who are experiencing difficulties come forward and speak to their local GP as soon as possible.”
