FOI 25-194 Eating Disorder Incidents

Freedom of Information Request

Reference

FOI 25-194 Eating Disorder Incidents

Request Date

28 Apr 2025

Response Date

02 May 2025

Information Requested

I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 for data around ADULT AMBULANCE (999) CALLS due to any form of Eating Disorder in your catchment area. 

  

Please confirm receipt of this request. I look forward to your response within the statutory 20 working days, and ideally as soon as reasonably practical as this is crucial for analytical purposes. 

  

Data requested: 

ALL ADULT AMBULANCE (999) CALLS for an eating disorder with a primary reason for the call being eating disorder related – diagnosis key words – Anorexia Nervosa, Atypical Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, Atypical Bulimia nervosa, Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (EDNOS), Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID), Binge Eating Disorder (BED). 

  

Dates: 

Admission dates between 01/01/2020 – 31/12/2024 

  

Purpose: 

To analyse the frequency of 999 calls in the acute treatment of eating disorders 

Response

Public authorities are not required to create information in order to answer a request. There’s a distinction  
between creating new information, and compiling information. Where a request can be answered by  
compiling information from readily-available resources held by the public authority, this is not the same as  
creating new information. However, if collation of the information would require skill and complex  
judgement, the information is not held.  

The Scottish Ambulance Service does not have a dispatch code for ‘eating disorders’ and we are unable to accurately report based on free-text fields without skill and complex judgement.  Patients with long-term health conditions usually present to the Scottish Ambulance Service under the immediate condition they are suffering – e.g. collapse/unconscious etc.  Although there may be underlying conditions, the Scottish Ambulance Service is an emergency response service and would triage the patient with the symptoms they were presenting. 

It is for this reason we have applied section 17 of the Freedom of Information Scotland Act 2002, as information not held.