Staff photographed sleeping at ‘unsafe’ York eating disorder unit | UK News

Staff at a specialist eating disorder unit have been photographed sleeping when they should have been looking after patients who were at risk of harming themselves.

There were multiple “unsafe” incidents because of staff failings, according to whistleblowers.

Many seriously ill patients have told the they felt their time on the unit had made their condition worse.

Schoen Clinic York said “where specific concerns have been raised, they have been fully investigated and addressed” but no “systemic issues” were found.

In total, we have spoken to nine former inpatients and five members of staff who told us of:

• Workers sleeping when they were meant to be monitoring vulnerable patients
• Staff witnessing patients self-harming and not helping them
• Patients with eating disorders served unhygienic food
• Workers using triggering language such as “you’re not skinny enough to be in here”

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article help is available via the ‘s Action Line page.

Naomi, who is in her 30s, wanted to live at home during treatment for her anorexia so she could continue to look after her child. However, she was told community treatment was not available and she would need to be admitted to Schoen Clinic York for round-the-clock specialist care.

Two years earlier, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) had rated the service as “good”, saying it provided “safe care” and “managed risk well”.

However, all of the patients the has spoken to, including Naomi, vehemently disagree with the healthcare watchdog’s findings. They spent time at the unit, after the CQC’s inspection, and were funded by the NHS.

Since 2022, the CQC said there had been “continued monitoring of the provider” including two visits to speak to patients and staff. They said it was “concerning” that “people who used the service feel so let down”.

Day-to-day care at Schoen Clinic York’s eating disorder service was mostly provided by nurses and healthcare assistants, which included agency staff.

Patients said while some were “hardworking” and “supportive”, others had little experience with mental health issues and sometimes lacked compassion.

The has seen photographs and a video taken by two patients, Naomi and Harriet, which they said show three members of staff asleep during times when they should have been monitoring them.

A care guide given to patients said they would be “supervised” for 40 minutes after every meal – a time where they may be tempted to rid their body of food by vomiting, taking laxatives or exercising excessively.

Naomi said she took her photo shortly after she had eaten her dinner.

Frustrated with the “poor care” she had received, Naomi took a picture of the sleeping healthcare assistant to prove it had happened.

She said it “felt like it was a total disregard for us as patients” and “illustrated a lack of care”.

Molly, 23, from Leeds, spent four months at Schoen in 2023 and agrees with Naomi.

During her stay, Molly required one-to-one observation to prevent her from exercising excessively. However, she says she would often “wake up in the night and hear staff snoring” so would get out of bed and quietly pace the room to try and burn energy.

People with eating disorders are susceptible to self-harm. However, patients said some workers failed to provide appropriate therapeutic support.

“I was in my room, cutting myself. Staff would come in and see me doing it and walk back out without saying anything,” said Abbie, 26, who was an inpatient in 2023.

One evening staff did step in after Abbie deliberately injured her head. She says she was rushed to A&E but the staff member who was meant to be looking after her fell asleep in the waiting room for several hours.

“I was tempted to leg it, but I was in so much pain I couldn’t,” she said.

The lack of monitoring left vulnerable patients in “unsafe” situations, according to staff whistleblowers, who have asked to remain anonymous because they are worried speaking out will impact their ability to work in the future.

We shared the findings of our investigation with the chair of the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Eating Disorders Faculty, Dr Ashish Kumar.

“I sympathise that sometimes there are staff who are overworked or units that are understaffed,” he said. “However, not responding to patients when they’re suffering can lead to more serious harm and possibly death.”

Schoen said it was unable to comment on individual cases but staff “anticipate and manage the risk” of self-harm through “individualised care plans, enhanced observation where necessary and clinical escalation protocols”.

All staff have been “vetted, trained and supervised before working with patients”, it added.

Understandably, the quality of food served to a person with an eating disorder is important to aid their recovery.

However, patients said they were not taken seriously when they repeatedly raised concerns about the meals served at Schoen Clinic York.

One woman told us she and others were served food with hair in it in May 2025.

“I was like, ‘I can’t eat that. We’re in here with food issues, you can’t serve us hairy food’,” she said.

A month earlier, health inspectors had given a one-star food hygiene rating to Schoen. Only 90 out of 31,380 care settings in England have such a low score.

Concerns included kitchen workers not wearing hair nets or tying their hair back.

Many of the patients told us the food could sometimes be “inedible”.

“When we complained they said ‘it’s just your eating disorder talking’,” said former patient Harriet, who was at the unit in 2023.

In the same year, Molly’s mother Sarah became so concerned she wrote to the clinic’s management.

“Dishes often contain meat that looks like cartilage, jelly and fat, with a high percentage of gristle,” she wrote. “I would expect the quality of the nutrition provided to be of the highest in order to motivate the patients to eat.”

In response, Schoen said it takes “any concerns about food quality seriously”.

“There was a period when we were required to use a designated food supplier by our landlords” which “aligns with the timeframe when some patients raised concerns”, a spokesperson said.

Schoen said it had “addressed the issues” identified in the latest food hygiene inspection and its kitchens were overseen by a new head chef.

“I’m absolutely horrified and disgusted to hear about these terrible experiences,” said Wera Hobhouse, the chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Eating Disorders, .

Responding to reports from patients that staff at Schoen used triggering language such as “just eat something”, the Liberal Democrat MP said too often “eating disorders are seen as a choice” and “there is so much patient blaming going on”.

“We know that people can fully recover from an eating disorder, but too many patients are in services where staff are not trained well enough,” she added.

Schoen Clinic York expanded in February to treat dementia patients in the same building as those with eating disorders and the has been told that staff would move between the two services.

The learned that a week after the eating disorder unit closed in August, the dementia unit – also known as Wellen Court – was stopped from accepting new patients amid safety concerns.

York City Council, which funds local dementia care placements, confirmed it had “temporarily paused” admissions to ensure “there is a safe environment”.

Off the back of its concerns, the CQC carried out an unannounced inspection, with the findings to be published in due course.

Schoen said it welcomed “enhanced safeguarding measures” and its residents received “high standards of care”.

• If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article help is available via the ‘s Action Line page.