Dr. Amanda Burke:

At the moment it is because we are developing specialist tiered services. We have seen a change in the profile of young people who have been admitted to inpatient units, particularly over the Covid period. There has been a very well publicised increase in the number of young people with eating disorders. In our unit, where we previously may only have had one or two patients, we have had up to 50% or 60% occupancy with eating disorders. We are working very hard on standing up the eating disorder teams, which provides a real alternative to inpatient care. The work that is being done is in increasing the day hospital services and specialist services to obviate the need for inpatient admissions. At present, bed numbers are enough for the young people who are coming through.