Eating Disorders: Community Health Services
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve the (a) completeness and (b) quality of data collected on waiting times to access adult community eating disorder services.
Answered by Dr Zubir Ahmed
Adult eating disorders are covered by the overall adult waiting time metrics developed through the Clinically Led Review of Standards. Work to implement adult community mental health time-based metrics therefore also applies to adult community eating disorder services.
To improve completeness and quality of data submitted to the Mental Health Services Dataset (MHSDS), the Adult Mental Health team has developed SNOMED CT clinical coding guidance and national reference sets to support accurate recording of assessments, interventions, medications, and waiting time clock stops. Online training modules have been published to support providers with MHSDS submissions, with further pathway-specific modules and clinical descriptor guidance in development, alongside planned educational sessions for 2026/27.
The national Data Collections Service provides proactive one-to-one data quality support to providers, and an experimental access and waiting times dashboard is available on NHS Futures. In addition, NHS England publishes data quality information on all MHSDS submissions and contacts providers monthly to address identified issues.
Together, these measures are intended to strengthen the completeness and accuracy of waiting time data for adult community eating disorder services.
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