13/11/2015
Complementary therapies and the NHS - The NHS is in crisis we are told, Doctors and nurses, hospitals and surgeries can no longer cope with the pressure of demand. Yet they still don't refer patients to other allied healthcare professionals. Therapies like osteopathy, Chiropractic and acupuncture and counselling have long been recognised, established, tried and tested. There are minimum training requirements usually of at least three to four years. All the above therapies are overseen by professional associations that set strict codes of conduct, ethics and health and safety. Yet still the medical profession are totally resistant in accepting CAM, which is quite odd because certainly the main professional therapies osteopathy, Chiropractic and Traditional acupuncture can and do save the NHS millions of pounds a year. Whilst acupuncture is used in a very limited form by physiotherapists and some GPs and nurses as an adjunct to pain relief, it much wider use is still not accepted. I think things need to change, if the NHS is under such huge pressure but they cannot refer their patients on to other forms of allied healthcare, mainly because NICE don't approve, because they are controlled by the pharmaceutical companies, then there needs to be public pressure from patients associations etc. to put pressure on the NHS to more fully recognise CAM therapies as valid for many millions of people throughout the world.