To think the NHS should not be cutting funding for Anorexia and EDs if they are going to be spending ££££ on weight loss jabs

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Anorexia and ED numbers are soaring. My daughter has battled the disease for 6 years. It kills far quicker than obesity and the sooner it is treated the better the outcome. During the last few years I have witnessed so many parents fighting for treatment and now in some severe cases patients are just being given palliative care.

Most areas are now planning cuts to specialist eating disorder services.

The fact we apparantly have ££££ to spend on weight loss jabs when children and young people are essentially being left to die is not ok and highlights a quick fix medicated approach by the NHS as opposed to longer term MH provision.

Mental health provision has been inadequate for pretty much all conditions for years, with long waiting lists and patchy services. But that’s a completely separate issue to the very limited introduction of weight loss medication for around 200,000 people over 3 years, all of whom have to have a bmi of over 35 and at least one weight related health condition. By the way the medication costs the NHS £122 a month not a week & that’s for the highest dose. Obesity can be a serious health threat and is a chronic disease that is extremely hard to reverse once it is established. It’s not a mental illness.

So likely to cost ££££ then.

MH services budgets have been cut drastically in many areas it’s stretched beyond what can be managed by funding and lack of staffing too the issue is the the NHS is broken and much of the money is wasted and poorly managed this don’t new it’s just absolutely critical now

The money for WLI is not being taken out of MH services that is not how the funding works (it’s £112 a month not a week)

of course this feels personal for you but they are separate issues and there are far more concerning issues with NHS funding and how money is spent than a relatively low cost medication

Not entirely true. FBT is effective and the sooner the condition is treated the better the outcome. There are new therapies too. Many patients overcome Anorexia.

There’s a large amount of ignorance re the condition hence people being left to die. It is treatable!

Why don't you pay for private treatment for your daughter?

What needs to be shared around?
The budget is already shared. There is a local budget and each commissioner is making decisions based on the needs in their local area. The hospital gets a budget and clinical leads are submitting proposals which include cost-benefit analysis. Then each department gets their own pot of funding accordingly.
If there was a jab to fix anorexia, I am fairly certain you would gladly accept it and not question that funding is being pulled from skin cancer surgeries. In the actual fact, these two services are entirely unrelated much like obesity and ED services. Even if the obesity jab cost 1k a week, it still wouldn't cover a week of a specialist ED bed. And it costs much much less.

All of these cuts seem cruel and as if they want to get rid of certain groups of people it’s disgusting

So funding should be proportional?

3% to women with anorexia
30% to obese women.

Or 0.2% to anorexic children
19% to obese children

But you’ve singled out one group of society who should in your opinion not receive NHS help, but who should go private.

Of course it is shocking and horrible that ANY service is cut. We all wish that was not the case.

But you have decided that obese people are the ones you are going to pick on?

You shouldn’t have one group of patients just being left high and dry whereas another gets everything chucked at it. It’s not ok.

The two groups are connected. Both involve intake of food. Some obese patients apparantly do have eating disorders too. How is it fair that one group gets the moon on a stick whereas the other just get cuts. Particularly when outcome and saving lives hinges on early treatment.

I dont think that the NHS should be paying for victims of motorcycle accidents, or smokers with cancer, or for IVF, or breast reductions .....

(obviously I do - but this is the level you are discussing)

Many diseases don't get the funding they deserve. I was lucky to have private medical cover through work so I actually got an endometriosis diagnosis and appropriate treatment, on the NHS it can take 10 years or more.

They have limited funding, they have to make tough decisions. Obesity is a modern epidemic, untreated our hospitals will be full of people with issues exacerbated by their weight, particularly as they age. The weight loss injections seem to sort the issue out quite quickly.

Yes there is a psychological element to being overweight, but you could argue in our society with food being thrust on you at all occasions and UPF sugar filled fast food being particularly addictive, it's actually a wonder so many are of normal weight.

I don't know much about anorexia but it seems like a very complex deep rooted mental as well as physical issue, with no magic bullet cure. So it's an economic decision to pay for these jabs, and I think it's a valid one. I have two relatives who for various reasons are significantly overweight, I have no doubt that the NHs paying for weight loss injections would save money in the medium to long term for them.

But @Agix, whilst I hear you point, a person who is underweight / a healthy weight hugely restricting their calories in order to be as small as possible, often with the resulting serious health complications or even death, is just not the same as an obese person hugely restricting their calories to become a healthy weight.

I can see you find it hypocritical for these jabs (and no doubt restrictive diets in general for obese people) to be supported given all the messages you received to promote your own recovery from anorexia. It sounds like a really hard position for you to be in and I imagine a lot of others feel similarly to you.

I suppose it is all a matter of degree though. Most obese people are unlikely to become so small that it endangers their lives. For someone with a history of anorexia, surely the same is not true.

It is treatable. Therapy. How much is 4 weeks of private therapy?

Obesity is treatable. Injections. 4 weeks of injections is less than £200 paid for privately. Around 500,000 women are paying privately. Even those who are eligible for NHS treatment because the are unable to get them prescribed. A tiny percentage of obese diabetics are prescribed them, the number for non diabetic obese people is less.

Your data starts off skewed. The comparison isn't relevant.

It’s not true that weight loss medication will be ‘chucked’ at people. There is a very small, targeted rollout to around 200,000 sick people over three years. But more importantly it’s got nothing to do with funding for eating disorder treatment, any more that offering a new cancer drug would be. I’m sorry your daughter is sick. I hope she is able to get effective treatment soon.

But I get them privately, and pay for consultation, etc

Who is getting the moon on a stick? How, exactly?

Overall spending on young people's eating disorders is increasing by 2.9% above inflation this year. Unfortunately it's a postcode lottery as about half of the regional integrated care boards are making cuts. Depending on where you live OP you might be seeing a significant increase in available funding in your area.

Source: https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/news-and-features/latest-news/detail/2025/03/05/rcpsych-raises-concerns-over-planned-spending-cuts-to-children-s-eating-disorder-services-as-referrals-rise

Being addicted to food and using it/restricting it/binging for comfort happens to anorexics and obese people. The morbidly obese often suffer from binge eating disorder, like bulimia but they don't try and purge it out.
So not all ED suffers are too skinny, some are way too big.

Why are you picking on medication used to treat obesity instead of every other thing the NHS spends money on?

It's extremely unfair but in a time where more cuts are being made to the NHS and demand is continuing to outstrip supply more than ever before, they prioritise services that benefit the most amount of people. There are far more obese people than people with anorexia and obesity costs the NHS far more in associated complications.

Totally unfair to the individuals it affects though, but the system is crumbling.

It's not ok that there isn't good enough care for anorexia and other eating disorders. It's awful.

But these are two unrelated health issues.

Your anger should be directed towards the government not to people with different medical issues.