MORE people were admitted to hospital for eating disorders in the Braintree district last year, figures reveal.

NHS figures show there were about 50 finished hospital admissions with a primary or secondary diagnosis of an eating disorder in the year to March 2023 – including 10 under 18-year-olds.

That was up from 35 hospital admissions in 2021-22 and 30 before the pandemic in 2019-20.

The figures are rounded to the nearest five.

Across England, there were nearly 28,400 hospital admissions with a primary or secondary diagnosis of an eating disorder - down slightly from 29,000 the year before.

However, it marked a 35 per cent increase compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2019-20 when there were 21,000 admissions.

So far in Braintree, there have been some 30 admissions for eating disorders in 2023-24.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: "We’re improving eating disorder and mental health services, investing almost £1billion in community mental health care for adults with severe mental illness - including eating disorders - by 2024.

"Capacity at children and young people’s community eating disorder services is also being increased across the country thanks to an additional £54million government investment."