Making a referral
Ellern Mede is an independent provider as well as an NHS Qualified Provider contracted by NHS England. Our inpatient services accept NHS and CCG funded patients. We do not recommend inpatient stays are paid for by private families. In only a very few cases, provided beds are available, the patient is in early stages, and clinicians believe a short stay is beneficial, we may accept Self-Pay or Insurance-funded inpatients.
Website forms are the best way to log your enquiry. If in doubt, please email NHS Form 1s to nhs@ellernmede.org. We do have waiting lists. If you want to talk about applying to be placed on a waiting list for privately funded inpatient beds, please fill in the private referrals form or email privatereferrals@ellernmede.org
Due to COVID-19 we are not currently running an Outpatient Service.
Private services for families and patients
By Private Services we mean early intervention self-funded or insurance funded service. Evidence shows the earlier a person receives treatment for an eating disorder the better the chance of that treatment being effective. We will treat your enquiry in the strictest confidence. Please fill in the private referral enquiry form on this website.
NHS Trust bed managers, commissioners and other NHS or public funded referrers
We are currently only accepting enquiries for beds using the NHS Enquiry Form. Please note that there is always a waiting list due to demand and that priority is set by working closely with our NHS commissioners. We do not admit on an emergency basis.
NHS inpatients may be funded for some follow up treatment to support their discharge. Other than that, we are not currently running any Outpatient Services.
Make a private enquiry
Make an NHS referral
The private inpatient referrals process
Following an enquiry via the website, or by email we will contact you to discuss your options further. We will ask you for patient details and medical history as this is relevant to knowing if we are the best service to help you. Risk assessment is part of the initial enquiry process and we require a letter be provided by a specialist AND/OR a GP. Following triage through this process, we will send you Terms and Conditions and ensure that funding is in place. Initial Therapeutic Assessment is by our Multi Disciplinary Team and will determine if you are suitable for inpatient treatment.
Due to COVID-19 there is temporary closure of Outpatient and Day Patient Services. These programmes are not suitable for high risk patients, (for exammple red rating on Junior MARSIPAN scale).
NHS, CCG or other publically-funded referrals
Ellern Mede offers eating disorder services to children and young people who are referred by NHS England, Trusts and Clinical Commissioning Groups across the UK. However we are only NHS contracted for young people under 18. Separate CCG funding needs to precede any enquiry for adult inpatient beds.
We also offer services to public funded health bodies in Scotland, Wales and Ireland as well as the Channel Islands. All admissions are subject to funding agreement, clinical assessment and suitable bed and treatment programme availability.
The process begins with a specialist Form 1 referral from the NHS, CCG or other public funded body. Give us details via our website or via email.
Admission and Treatment
Potential admissions are reviewed by clinicians. We have limited bed availability and always have a waiting list which is based on clinical need and acuity, rather than on a first come, first served basis. We do not accept Emergency Admissions.
Peter Curtis, Managing Director