I work at the tertiary care centre in the Ottawa Hospital's eating disorders program. I've been there for 17 years.
We've seen cuts over that time. We lost an OT a couple of years ago, an advanced-practice nurse, half of a psychologist position. It's like death by a thousand cuts, constantly being shaved back a little bit at a time with each new budget.
The hospital budget has not increased for the past three years, and we don't see it increasing for the coming years. That actually means a 3% budget cut, because that's the minimum increase in health care costs for a hospital. So I fully anticipate that our eating disorders program is going to be cut again this year, and probably again next year.
That's meant fewer services. That's meant our outpatient program is much smaller than we hoped it would be. Our day hospital is getting thinner—pardon the pun—and the in-patient program is really minimal, from my perspective.
We also don't treat binge-eating disorder. Binge-eating disorder is the most common eating disorder among adults—