WORRIED parents have hit out at health bosses after shifting a North centre for youngsters with eating disorders.

The body responsible for commissioning the service - NHS North of Tyne - has moved the child eating disorder unit at Prudhoe Hospital, in Northumberland, to a new specialist centre at West Lane Hospital in Middlesbrough.

All those aged under 18 who live in the north of the region and need intensive support for their illness will now have to travel to the new Evergreen Centre at the Teesside hospital.

It might now mean hours worth of travel for patients heading from northerly parts of the region to Teesside.

Those currently under the care of Prudhoe will continue to be treated there, but all new referrals will be directed to the service in the south of the region.

The mum of a 16-year-old girl who is currently receiving treatment for anorexia at the Prudhoe centre described the move as “absolutely devastating” for future sufferers and said she feared lives would be put at risk.

The mum-of-two, from Gosforth, Newcastle, who asked not to be named, said: “Our daughter has been an inpatient in the eating disorder centre at Prudhoe Hospital since February this year and there is no doubt the service saved her life.

“From our own experience we have learned that one of the key aspects of making a recovery is motivation, and having school, family and friends nearby is absolutely vital to give the sufferer the drive, hope and desire to get well again.

“Most people want to recover from an illness, but anorexia sufferers do not want to get well, so every means possible in ones power has to be used to encourage their desire for recovery.

“We know that people have an increased chance of getting better the closer they stay to their friends and family and it will be very, very difficult for families who live in the north of the region to travel regularly to Teesside to see their loved ones.

“It’s a cruel decision to move the service and lives will be put at serious risk because of it.”

She added: “It is obvious that this is an expensive and counter-productive measure because putting young sufferers in hospitals so far away from home will undoubtedly delay their recovery, cost the NHS a great deal more, and cause great distress for the young person, parents, siblings and friends.

“The number of cases of eating disorders is on the increase so surely it should be the case that there are more centres dealing with the illnesses, not fewer.”

Relocation of the service follows a tendering exercise by NHS North of Tyne, where provider trusts submitted bids against the clinical service specification, and the three year contract was awarded to Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust to a value of £5m.

The new 12-bed facility at West Lane Hospital provides inpatient services for children and young people, both male and female, from the Tees Valley, County Durham, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, and North Cumbria areas.

It opened at the end of last month and specialist staff provide care for children and young people up to the age of 18 with illnesses such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, who require treatment.

Dr Roger Williams, consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist for the Evergreen Centre, said: “As a regional service we recognise the importance of people keeping in touch with their family and friends while in hospital and have provided computers with wireless internet access and internet phone software.

“There is no simple fix to eating disorders. Our aim is firstly, to safeguard our patient's physical health and then to give each child and young person the help they need to reach a point in their lives when they no longer need hospital care.

“People leaving the centre will have a stable eating pattern and be better able to manage the rest of their recovery in their own homes or local community, with the support of their local health services.”

A spokesperson for the Northern Specialised Commissioning Group which buys specialist surgery and treatments for the NHS in the North said: “We’re very pleased that people living in the North East now have access to a dedicated specialist eating disorder inpatient service for the first time.

“It’s important to note that this new eating disorder service is a dedicated specialist service, which was commissioned to meet very specific clinical requirements and is the first of its kind in the region.”

FACTS

THERE are an estimated 240 new cases of anorexia in the region each year, and 360 cases of bulimia.

One in three hospital admissions for eating disorders involves a child, according to recent figures by the NHS Information Centre.

Rates of anorexia among children were highest in the North East.

Under-18s accounted for 882 out of 2,579 admissions to England’s hospitals last year.

Of these, 31 were for children aged under 10, including 11 boys, and 367 were for 10 to 14-year-olds, including 50 boys.

In the 15 to 19-year-old age group, there were 698 admissions among girls and 49 among boys.

Overall, the number of hospital stays among all ages was up 11% on the previous year.