Dr Nanette Milne, Scottish Conservative MSP for the North East has welcomed the debate on Eating Disorders – Raising the Awareness. Speaking in the Scottish Parliament.
She said, “I wish to congratulate Dennis Robertson on securing this debate, and to record my admiration for his courage in rising above a personal tragedy to raise awareness of a condition which has blighted, and continues to play havoc with many lives, not only in Scotland, but across the UK and elsewhere.
“Along with my tribute to Dennis Robertson for bringing the issue of eating disorders to this session of Parliament, I’d like to include the efforts (and indeed successful) efforts of my former Parliamentary colleague David Davidson to convert his own family problems into positive action for those who fall victim to eating disorders like anorexia nervosa and bulimia.
“David Davidson secured the attention of the Scottish Parliament back in 2001 when he put in the public domain his daughter Suzy’s battle with anorexia nervosa.
“At that time in Scotland, support within the NHS for sufferers and their families was simply not available, either in the form of inpatient facilities or post-discharge psychosocial support, for what is a complex medical problem, often with serious underlying mental health issues.
“If patients were assessed as requiring inpatient treatment, they tended to be admitted to general psychiatric wards, with the only residential unit dedicated to eating disorders being in the privately run Priory Hospital, accessible to NHS patients only if funded by their local health board on the recommendation of a consultant. Again, after discharge, when intensive day care support is needed, there were few facilities available at that time within reach of the patients who required them.
“Thankfully things have moved on. Following referral of a petition by Grainne Smith of the North East Eating Disorders Support Group to the Health Committee (of which my former colleague was a member), the Committee held an inquiry into eating disorders in late 2004/early2005.
“This important inquiry, which took evidence in Dennis Robertson’s home town Stonehaven, exposed the problems facing patients with eating disorders and their families.
“The Framework for Mental Health Services, published by the Scottish Executive in 2001, had merely been given lip service and not taken forward, mainly because there had been no real drive at Ministerial level, and it was up to health boards to take action if they so decided.
“The early diagnosis and referral to specialists, so important if the condition is not to become chronic and therefore more difficult to treat, depended on a GP workforce whose undergraduate training did not focus on eating disorders as a distinct issue within psychiatry rotations, and the Health Committee recommended that government and the RCGP look to improving this situation.
“It also recommended that the costs should be investigated of developing regional inpatient services, and of establishing a Managed Clinical Network for eating disorders. And that the Scottish Executive, as well as looking to ensure more specialist training of doctors, should pursue proposals to develop specialist training for psychiatric nurses, teachers and social workers.
“Thankfully, following on from that important inquiry, things have improved, and certainly in my area there is now a well-developed North of Scotland Managed Clinical Network for eating disorders. The Eden Unit in Aberdeen, since it opened in 2009, has provided specialist residential care in dedicated surroundings for people with eating disorders, and recently has been running at almost full capacity, unable to accept patients from other parts of the country.
“Outpatient services have been busy too, in Grampian, Tayside and Highland. NHS Tayside’s Eating Disorder Service, based in Dundee, runs outpatient clinics in Angus, Perth and Kinross, and NHS Highland, after some staffing shortages, is now able to provide a comprehensive support service run by staff with accredited specialist training.
“So the north of Scotland is now quite well catered for, and the new West Lothian unit will allow for similar care in the southeast of the country.
“But it is still important to continue raising awareness of eating disorders so they can be diagnosed and treated early and effectively. There are still people losing their lives to the complications of these serious conditions, as Dennis Robertson knows only too well, but there has been significant progress during the lifetime of the Scottish Parliament, and this has been in significant measure due to the determination and tenacity of colleagues like David Davidson and Dennis Robertson.”