Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

For years now I have been raising the issue of specialist treatment for eating disorders. The news that no new inpatient beds for adults with eating disorders have opened should be surprising but, given all of the broken promises and missed deadlines over the years, how could anyone be surprised? We should be, however. We should be shocked at the lack of urgency, the level of mismanagement and the complete lack of help and hope for so many people who are seriously ill.

In 2018, when the Taoiseach was the Minister for Health, the HSE published a new national model of care for eating disorders. Under that plan, 20 new inpatient beds were promised. They were supposed to be delivered by 2023. To date, zero have been delivered. Not only has there been an abject failure to deliver these beds, but there has not even been an attempt. The Journal has confirmed today that no new funding to open these beds was provided at any stage in the past six years. As it stands, there are just three public beds in the entire country for adults with eating disorders, all of which are located at St. Vincent's hospital. That means that only people who reside within that hospital's catchment area can get treated in those beds. There are three beds for the entire country, and most of the country cannot use them.

I have to say that it does not seem like the Government understands how serious eating disorders are. Over the years, I have spoken to women who have been forced to speak publicly about what they are going through and to set up GoFundMe campaigns to get the care they need. I have spoken to parents who are at their wits' end watching their children quite literally waste away in complete disbelief that there is no support for them. I have spoken to people who work in the NHS who are seeing Irish women who are at death's door and who are going over to the UK because they cannot get the care they need at home. That reality is not represented at all in the Government's response. There has been zero funding to provide more beds at any stage in the past six years.

Anorexia has the highest mortality rate of any mental health condition and incidences are rising. In 2022, admissions were the highest in a decade. Despite this, when people are at death's door, when early intervention is obviously not an option, there is nowhere for them to go because the beds do not exist. The HSE will sometimes pay for private treatment while other times it will not. There is no clarity or transparency as to how decisions in this regard are made. I acknowledge that there has been some progress with regard to care in the community but we know that many people are far past the point of needing that early intervention. It is not an option for some people. They urgently need inpatient care. Twenty new inpatient beds for adults with eating disorders were promised in 2018. When will they be delivered?

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