Eating disorder guidelines issued

New guidelines aimed at improving the care of people with eating disorders have been issued by the health service watchdog. NHS Quality Improvement Scotland has set out treatment plans for conditions such as anorexia and bulimia. It has also made recommendations for treating teenagers and warned about inaccurate information on the Internet.

Campaigners have welcomed the guidelines but called for greater funding. The guidelines will have to be followed by GPs and hospitals. More than 80,000 people in Scotland are believed to suffer from eating disorders. Recent tragedies, blamed on poor care, have prompted a review.

Louise Weddell, whose daughter Lindsay suffered from anorexia for years and subsequently died, said: "There was mismanagement from day one with my daughter and I believe that led to her demise. I'm not saying that they deliberately went out to kill her, but they really all have to get their heads together so this doesn't happen to everyone else. This changed my life forever because my wee girl has gone forever."

Dr Harry Miller, consultant psychiatrist with the Grampian Eating Disorders Service, said one deficiency was the lack of development of specialist services. He said: "For large parts of Scotland there were no clinicians around. In addition to that, even where there are services, they are all out-patient services. There has been no specialist in-patient provision within Scotland. This is in contrast to most parts of England where they have developed specialist services.

Mark Reilly, from the charity, Eating Disorders Association, welcomed the new guidelines but agreed Scotland was lagging behind the rest of the UK. "Treatment (in Scotland) is sadly lacking," he said. "When you compare that to England, even in areas like Cornwall has its own specific eating disorder service with inpatient and outpatient provision."