The following article is from the Daily Express 13 march 2007.

There are great services offering complementary treatments on the National Health Service, says Katherine Murphy, spokesperson for the Patients Association, but she warns that you may not be offered them.

"Its very much up to the individual patient to ask for the treatments", she says. "Patients expect to be offered any treatment available to them, but in many cases, this simply doesn't happen even when the services are available."

There is no central database on the treatments available across the UK, although the Prince's Foundation for Integrated Health (FIH) is in the process of collating data that will help build up a better picture of the services available.

To find out whats available in your area, its best to ask your GP, Midwife, or hospital consultant.
"You may also find treatments are available from a pain management clinic in your area, if your GP can,t directly offer you the service," says Dr Jeremy Tankel.

You don't have a right to complementary treatments on the NHS but if you know there are services in your area, don't be put off straightaway. " You could ask for a second opinion from another GP at your practice."
If you do experience difficulty obtaining treatment, you may be able to get help and advice from the Patients Association (0845 608 4455). patients-association.org.uk, or the NHS Patients Advice and Liaison Service. pals.nhs.uk.

For more information contact the FIH website fih.org.uk

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Well, it's true that it's always worth asking...

But in the case of homeopathy it seems to me to be a bit of a vexed question because:-

- you'll be lucky to find two doctors within the same local practice who share the same opinion. One might have a "special interest" in homeopathy, another might think it's a load of rubbish. Their willingness to refer you on may vary accordingly.

- looking at it from a larger perspective, the position is still confusing for the patient. Although there are NHS homeopathic hospitals and you can ask for a referral, there are also senior consultants within the NHS who have argued that these should be closed and that homeopathy has no place within the system. Bit of a mixed message, really.

- even if you do manage to get referred, would the "homeopathic" treatment really be homeopathic - i.e. a geniune alternative to allopathic medicine rather than some hybrid complementary version (i.e NOT homeopathy)?

I recently attended one of the "Expert Patient" courses offered by the NHS and raised precisely these points. The tutors couldn't give me any guidance apart from asking me to refer to my GP. Who doesn't know...

We definitely do need a database but in the meantime we have patients, sometimes with quite serious disorders and making decisions which affect their lives, who are confused by the whole issue. This confusion is not lifted by asking for a second or third opinion - it's worsened because the patient then sees that services are in disarray and that it's sometimes a matter of opinion as to whether something will be helpful for them. The old "if it works for you" advice (at which point the weary patient might give up on receiving balanced advice and think that they need to randomly try everything for themselves, in the hope of an individual favourable response. IF they're lucky enough to have time on their side).

I guess I could go back & re-test the system but I very much doubt whether I could access a geniune homeopathy service. Or indeed get acupuncture from someone who hasn't just been on a brief course and taught how to use this as a handy "add-on" to their physio skills. I could be wrong but I don't know whether the powers that be in the NHS have a deep understanding of what these 2 alternatives are really about. I suspect the same will be true of other alternatives.

One little example. A couple of years ago our local PCT offered a 12 week course in chi kung, emphasising the benefits in terms of reduced blood pressure and flexibility. The person delivering the course had herself only been to a few lessons, picking up the external exercises in the same way as one would at any "keep fit" or "bums & tums" class. In fact, the class might just as well have been "bums & tums" as it was approached in the same manner - a Western adaptation based on observation, repetition and very little understanding. Nothing about the energy body, nothing about the real length of time it might take to achieve results (tends to be months and years rather than weeks), nothing about meditation. The only point to all of this - which was achieved accidentally - was that the course organiser had also invited along a genuine practitioner with over 20 years experience who could advise patients "off the record". Most patients who listened to him didn't get the point, though, and probably never will. The PCT's information didn't really back up what he said and misrepresented chi kung as just simple, gentle exercises, nothing more. And the PCT hasn't offered any more of these classes.

From the patient's pov, true knowledge seems to be hard to find. We've gotta dig. Personally, I'm still waiting for PALS to get back to me. Better stop holding my breath. Sigh...

In the meantime, it will at least be interesting to see how this all comes together. Given the usual cash-strapped situation, perhaps increasingly polarised by the introduction of the Payment by Results market mechanism and - goodie - "patient choice" the pressures will mount. And patients will need to do their homework!

Again I think though patients have every right to choose the way of treating the problems in which they are in we should keep this in mind most of the alternative treatments lack able practitioners so theoretically we may come to know a certain form of alternative treatment is best suited for a specific condition but unless there is a proper personnel to deal with the same it wont be fruitful at all. This is one reason that these form of treatments have not got the expected recognition thats what I feel.

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Fully agree that patients should have the right to choose.

In practice, though, without full information and comparative data they're not really in a strong position to make the best choices. At a time when they might already be feeling quite ill and probably also be psychologically affected by their diagnosis and prognosis. Under these circumstances the pressure is on to simply accept whatever the prevailing culture has to offer. And nothing more. Yes, doctor, whip it out, blast it out, drug it away... Just make it stop! Without any prior knowledge of genuine alternatives which can deliver real results it's extremely unlikey the patient will stand their ground and insist on a particular "complementary" treatment.

I'd be very interested to hear from anyone who has done precisely that, though...

Never did hear back from PALS either!

Jennilee

I have had the same experience. I recently had an accupuncture session from someone who was completely ignorant and seemed to have no idea how it should be done properly. I can assure you that I ddn't go back.

Allopathic medicine has all sorts of laws to protect it, and I think that its unfair that alternatives don't have the same protection. We need an 'Alternative Medical Council' which would be able to register the genuine people with decades of wisdom and real understanding and kick out the incompetent shysters. If we had that then it cold enforce some standards.

I expect that all the doubters in the NHS would shut up if they could see that the genuine practitioners of alternative medicine were clearly separated from the ignorant people who are just out for a quick buck.