CONSULTANTS have welcomed a dramatic improvement in the region’s eating disorders service.

Next week, a 15-bed treatment centre for adult patients will open in West Park Hospital, Darlington.

Serving the North-East, North Cumbria and parts of North Yorkshire, it is the first specialist eating disorders unit in the country to have psychiatric doctors and nurses working alongside general doctors and nurses.

The North-East last year recorded the highest number of people in England admitted to hospital for eating disorders per 100,000 people.

Between July 2009 and June last year, 167 people in the North-East were admitted to hospital with anorexia, 12 were admitted with bulimia and 20 for other eating disorders.

Experts believe the number was partly caused by a lack of treatment facilities.

The new centre means patients with severe medical problems can be treated in the same ward where they are receiving psychiatric treatment.

Until now, patients with eating disorders with severe medical problems had to be sent to hospitals in Manchester or Sheffield.

Psychiatrist Dr Mel Temple, who is in charge of the new unit, said: “We have come a long way in the last three years. We are really getting this problem sorted.”

Until the NHS contract to provide specialist inpatient treatment for adults and children with learning difficulties was recently awarded to the Tees, Esk and Wear Valley NHS Foundation Trust, the regional inpatient service was provided by the privately run Priory mental health unit.

The Priory, at Middleton St George, near Darlington, ran a nine-bed eating disorders unit, which will close shortly.

Dr Temple said the next step was to establish a day treatment service in Darlington and on Teesside.

The West Park Hospital unit has en-suite ground-floor bedrooms with garden access and its own chef and kitchen, where patients will be encouraged to plan and prepare food.

Six forms of physical therapy will be available to help patients build up their strength.

Dr Chris Wells, a consultant gastroenterologist from the North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Hospital Trust, said: “The patients we will see here are a complex group with multiple needs.”