The patient – identified as Miss S – came from South Wales but became depressed and developed the eating disorder anorexia while staying with a friend in Devon, where she came under the care of Plymouth Teaching Primary Care Trust (TPCT). She was treated as an outpatient at first and became an inpatient from October 2006.

The trust then asked a psychiatrist in South Wales to treat Miss S, but he declined. When her condition grew worse, she was referred to a local food eating disorders clinic in South Wales, but the Health Commission for Wales (HCW) refused funding for the treatment.

Miss S’s mother then decided to pay for her daughter to be treated at a private eating disorders clinic, but complained to the ombudsmen, saying that the NHS should have funded the care.

In an investigation, the ombudsmen found maladministration and a failure in service by the relevant NHS organisations in Wales and England against the women.

The report also recommended that HCW should reimburse the money that Miss S’s mother had paid for her daughter’s care, with interest.

All three organisations concerned were advised to pay mother and daughter £250 each in recognition of the distress that had been caused by their failings.

A range of procedural recommendations was also made to the HCW – and it was suggested the Welsh Assembly Government should carry out a review into the adequacy of provision of such care across Wales.

All the bodies involved agreed to accept the recommendations, according to a report by the BBC.

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