Young adults with eating disorders could benefit from admittance to children's hospital

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2026-05-29 00:01

New Zealand

Photo by Stephen Andrews on Unsplash

Different children's health services in Aotearoa have different age cutoffs, above which patients must use the adult equivalent. At Wellington Hospital, anyone 16 or over is considered an adult, and two 16 and 17 year old patients with complex eating disorders were not able to be admitted to the Children's Hospital. The authors of a new paper say that the Children's Hospital has greater capacity and rooms that are more suitable, and suggest that a more flexible approach would benefit vulnerable young adult patients rather than rigid age limits.

News release

From: Pasifika Medical Association Group

General medicine teams are the largest admitting services in our adult hospitals but their limitations in terms of capacity, design and resourcing are well documented. Guidelines for Wellington currently consider anyone 16 and over an adult, yet data show the paediatric hospital to have greater capacity than the adult hospital, which is frequently bed-blocked. The paediatric service also has a single-room design that can meet basic patient rights. This paper highlights this disparity and suggests that the paediatric wards consider allowing young people with eating disorders to access their beds.

Journal/
conference: New Zealand Medical Journal

Organisation/s: University of Otago

Funder: n/a

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