West Midlands region eating disorders service celebrates successful first year
The trust which leads a group of organisations that provide adult eating disorder services in the West Midlands says it has been delighted with its success over the past year.
The West Midlands Eating Disorders Provider Collaborative consists of five partners together with people who use the service, their family, carers and other organisations.
It provides adult eating disorder services serving a population of 4.5 million.
The collaborative, which is led by Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (MPFT), is a new way of working which offers an opportunity to look at how services can be delivered differently.
Working in partnership with other organisations means each can benefit from the other’s specialist knowledge and expertise.
The collaborative, which has been running a year, is already making a difference to the care of those with an eating disorder, including reducing the distance many patients need to travel to receive care.
Since its launch, fewer patients have needed to be admitted to hospital for care of their eating disorder, improving patient satisfaction and reducing disruption to their lives.
It has successfully avoided 17 patient admissions and delivered treatment in a community setting.
Those who have had to be admitted to hospital have not had to travel outside of the West Midlands, and have also stayed in hospital for a shorter period of time – the average length of stay has reduced from 126 days to 90 days.
Mel Watson, provider collaborative programme director at MPFT, said: “We are extremely proud of our collaborative and believe the shared clinical leadership and partnership with the people using our services has resulted in a positive impact on both the quality of services and the patient experience.
"We now plan to do more to identify and address local issues and further develop the responsiveness of services.”
The partners in the collaborative are MPFT; Birmingham & Solihull NHS Foundation Trust; Coventry & Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust; Priory Healthcare and Elysium Healthcare.
The success of the collaborative has already been recognised with the project having been shortlisted for a prestigious national HSJ Value Award.
