Hospital for women with eating disorders to open

The company behind the hospital said it had worked closely with existing, and former patients, to plan it

A new hospital for women with eating disorders and mental health issues will open in Derbyshire this summer.

Cygnet Elowen Hospital, in Shipley, Heanor, will have 24 beds and all patients will be NHS-funded.

The hospital will also bring more than 100 new jobs, including health care professionals, clinicians, nurses, as well as catering, domestic and administrative roles.

Hospital manager Lisa Sutton said there had been an increase in people being diagnosed with eating disorders over the past few years and services to help these patients were in demand.

The hospital's facilities will include a garden, salon, en-suite bedrooms, therapy rooms, a multi-faith room, gym, treatment rooms, communal lounge, dining room, quiet lounge and meeting rooms.

It will be made up of two wards of 12 beds - one for eating disorder patients and the other for women with personality disorder and disordered eating.

'Close to home'

Cygnet works with local NHS commissioners who refer patients to the hospital, and its staff are trained through the same systems.

Miss Sutton said: "We are going to be delivering care that will be very specialised.

"We will have specialist doctors, dieticians, psychologists, social workers, and nurses with a lot of experience with eating disorder patients."

Miss Sutton added that demand for support for people with disordered eating had been rising since the Covid pandemic.

"There is a big demand; there is a waiting list. There are a lot of people out there struggling with limited resources in the community," she said.

"There aren't an awful lot of eating disorder specialist services around the country."

"Women need access to safe, effective support, as close to home as possible so they have access to their family, friends and wider support system."

Dr Tony Romero, Cygnet CEO, added: "The service is very much about supporting women therapeutically so they feel well again and are able to recover in a place where they feel safe and cared for."