Our client, who was already under the care of the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Team, when he began to develop an emerging eating disorder.

Despite concerns raised by him and his family, the Mental Health Team decided that it was safe to discharge him from their care. For a period of six months, his GP and family tried in vain to secure alternative NHS treatment, but were unable to find an NHS service that could help. In that time, the eating disorder went from one that should have been easily treated and managed, to one that became entrenched. It was not until our client’s body mass index had fallen to a dangerously low level of 13, some six months later, that he began to receive any specific care for his eating disorder.

The Mental Health Trust initially denied liability. Court proceedings were issued in the High Court, after which the Trust admitted that the discharge should not have happened and that this led to six months of avoidable pain and suffering, whilst our client was untreated. Our client’s case was that the failure to treat at an early stage (which is often crucial to good outcomes for patients with eating disorders), led to his eating disorder becoming entrenched and him continuing to suffer from debilitating anorexia nervosa some six years later.

Following a settlement meeting held shortly before Trial, we were able to secure an excellent settlement for our Client. This avoided the trauma of him having to give evidence in court.

S J Edney Solicitors obtained compensation of £100,000 for this Client in 2016