Developing community nasogastric feeding provision for children and young people with restrictive eating disorders.

Abstract

To share our findings from developing two novel service models for community nasogastric feeding in children and young people with eating disorders. Model 1 involved training parents/carers to administer NG feeding to their child at home and Model 2 is an outpatient NG feeding clinic. A retrospective case review examined clinical patient data and cost savings were calculated for Model 1 by comparing to the cost of an inpatient paediatric admission. Both models contributed to a reduction in hospital admission days, either via earlier discharge or admission avoidance. For the five patients treated using Model 1, there was a combined saving of 350 paediatric bed days and a projected net saving of £185,500. In model 2, five of the 13 patients avoided hospital admission. Two models for nasogastric feeding in the community have been developed and show promise in the management of restrictive eating disorders.