We will look at the referral and allocate two members of the team to assess you and invite you to one of our assessment clinics.

We will then send you an appointment letter, as well as some questionnaires to complete.

We arrange assessments as soon as we can, so you will hear from us shortly after we receive the referral.

The first point of contact would be their GP, who can refer them to our service.

We also accepted referrals from other professionals working in primary and secondary healthcare services.

You will be invited to one of our assessment clinics to meet with two members of the team. The assessment clinics takes place from 09:15 -12:00 / 12:15 – 15:00, depending on which day your are invited to attend. The assessment itself typically lasts around one and a half hours.

We will ask you questions about your relationship with food, your weight, and your shape. It’s important that we know your height and weight as part of the assessment. We understand this can be hard for some people, and you can talk to the clinician about how we can take these measurements in a way that feels comfortable for you. This information will help us decide the right treatment for you.

We will also ask questions about other parts of your life, like your work and relationships.

If there are any questions you don’t feel comfortable answering, just let the clinician know.

Following the assessment there will be a short break whilst the assessing clinicians meet with other professionals in the team, for a multidisciplinary discussion. Following this short break you will meet with the assessing clinicians again to discuss whether we are the right service for you, and if so, treatment options that we can offer.

The assessment is to help us understand if you are having difficulties that could be linked to an eating disorder, and if we can offer the right treatment for you.

Sometimes, people may have an eating disorder but don’t realise it. We encourage you to come to the assessment so we can explore this together with a clinician.

Before your assessment starts you will meet with a member of the nursing team, who will complete physical health observations, which will include your weight and height.

If you are not comfortable with this, please talk to the clinician during your appointment.

No. We understand that eating disorders affect people in different ways, both physically and mentally.

We do not have a weight or BMI limit for accessing our services.

Following the assessment there will be a short break whilst the assessing clinicians meet with other professionals in the team, for a multidisciplinary discussion. Following this short break you will meet with the assessing clinicians again to discuss whether we are the right service for you, and if so, the most appropriate treatment options.

We will also explain if there is a waiting time and what support you can access while preparing for treatment to start.

Please call us on 01865 904099 as soon as possible.

We will try to rearrange your appointment for a time that suits you, but please be aware that there are set days and times when we have our assessment clinics.

It’s normal to feel anxious about an assessment. We understand that it can be hard to talk about your difficulties, and this may be the first time you have discussed them in detail.

If you are worried about attending, please call us on 01865 904099 and ask to speak to a clinician. We can discuss ways to help you feel more comfortable about attending your appointment.

Please call us on 01865 904099 to cancel the appointment. One of our clinicians may want to speak to you about any concerns you have about attending.

Let us know as soon as possible so we can offer the appointment to someone else who is waiting. If people don’t inform us they are not attending, the appointment cannot be offered to someone else and  it can affect our waiting times.

If you miss your appointment, please contact us as soon as possible.

If you do not attend without letting us know, we will write to you to check if you still want to be assessed.

If we don’t hear from you, or if you miss any more appointments without notifying us, we will assume you no longer want to be seen by our service and discharge from the service.

Yes, you can bring someone with you. They can stay for the whole appointment, part of it, or wait in the hospital waiting area or café.

If you need an interpreter, let us know and we will arrange this for you.

We recommend you do not bring children to your appointment, as the topics we discuss may be sensitive.

We know it can be hard to arrange childcare. If you need to rearrange your appointment, please call us on 01865 904099 as soon as possible.

Yes, there is a pay-and-display car park. You can pay with coins or through a mobile payment. Parking for 2 hours costs £1.20.

The car park uses an automatic number plate recognition system.

There is free disabled parking available. Remember to enter your registration number on the iPad at reception.

This will be decided after your initial assessment.

The assessing clinician will discuss options with you in your assessment, and we will then make recommendations for treatment.

It is helpful for us to keep track of our patients’ weight, so we do recommend that you are weighed regularly throughout treatment.

Depending on where you are in your treatment, this can be done by a member of our team, by your GP or you can take responsibility for your own weighing.

This is something that will be discussed with you at the start of your treatment.

There is no specific time limit on treatment; everyone has individual treatments plans and their own treatment goals.

After your initial assessment, we will make recommendations for treatment and we may specify a number of sessions, but this will be reviewed regularly.

It may also be that you require different levels or types of help and support throughout your treatment.

It is best if you discuss this with the team member that you are seeing, as different sessions may involve different things and this may not be appropriate.

If you are having trouble arranging childcare to fit around appointments, then please contact us and we can try to arrange alternative appointments.