The GP practice of the future?

Three quarters of the British public would like to see complementary therapies available on the NHS according to a poll commissioned by the Prince’s Foundation for Integrated Health in 2006. It also claimed that 50 per cent of GP’s practices provide access to complementary medicine, although in truth this is more than likely to be osteopathy, chiropractic and acupuncture. The chances of getting massage or reflexology on the NHS are still slim.

Not for patients of the GP practice in Cullompton where Dr Michael Dixon has introduced over 20 complementary therapists alongside the normal GP services that would be expected anywhere. Patients have to pay for therapies such as healing, massage, acupuncture, or herbal medicine but at a reduced fee. The practice has its own organic and herb gardens and is next to a Boots store that stocks many of the remedies.

Dr Dixon wrote recently that the current approach to medicine is not patient-centred and takes little account to the patient’s background, culture and health belief. He says, ‘The integrated vision of general practice: a vision that is perceptive enough to acknowledge that health and wellbeing (i.e. the harmonisation of the body, mind and soul) transcends provenance by randomised control trial methodologies only.’

He favours ‘one that offers a wider choice of safe and effective therapies, while ensuring that patients do not turn their back on proven conventional medicine’.

What particularly pleases Dr Dixon is that he can provide solutions for patients that conventional medicine has little answers for. ‘I got into the integrated approach for purely selfish reasons. I used to dread appointments with patients with conditions from back pain to allergies, where modern medicine has little to offer. Now I’m able to steer people towards approaches that help them to get better.’

Anyone who pays for complementary therapies would love to see an integrated approach such as this which takes account of them as a person, rather than the doctor using a computer program to match your symptoms up to drugs. Dr Dixon hopes that his model of an integrated practice will ‘be of use to GPs and patients struggling towards a wider vision of what is possible when the soul is returned to medicine’.

Frances Ive is editor of www.healthysoul.co.uk
a comprehensive website for people who want to take responsibility for their wellbeing

Survey shows people are turning to natural remedies

According to a survey carried out by honey makers, Rowse, 61 per cent of British people questioned said they'd prefer to use natural products for common ailments than prescription drugs. For instance 72 per cent of them said that they would use honey and lemon to ease cold symptoms, 58 per cent chose garlic for lowering blood pressure and boosting the immune system and just under half chose to drink pomegranate juice for a healthy heart.

Even I consider that these are very high figures. Apparently over 2,000 adults were questioned in the YouGov survey. It seems that despite massive profits of pharmaceutical companies and doctors' seeming willingness to keep prescribing drugs for everything, the public is voting with its feet.

Many people feel that it's enough being bombarded with environmental pollution and pesticides on our food, without having to take chemical drugs as well.

All that's going on is that people are realising that there are simple remedies for many common ailments, such as honey and lemon for colds, manuka honey for digestive problems and ulcers, and St John's Wort for depression. And if you've got the ingredients in the house then it seems cheaper and simpler than going to the doctor for a prescription.

So while on the one hand complementary medicine is being squeezed by some medical professionals, on the other it is becoming increasingly popular. It is even widely used in the NHS. Every other year the Prince's Foundation for Integrated Health runs an award for the best example of integrated health in the NHS.

The excellent examples of integrated approaches to healthcare include the 2007 winner, Midlothian Sure Start, where support for families with young children included lessons on cooking healthy food. Among those chosen last year and previously have been mental health services using complementary therapies including aromatherapy, and an addiction clinic that used acupuncture and hypnotherapy to rid people of their habits.

This is not whacky medicine, but caring and supportive healthcare going on all over the country. Visit Frances Ive's website: www.healthysoul.co.uk

Stop beating up complementary medicine

Perhaps it's too strong to call it a war, but there is definitely a lot of battering of complementary medicine going on. There is a group of doctors and professors (some of whom have retired) who really have it in for homeopathy. They have written to the Chief Executive of the NHS complaining that homeopathy should not be available on the NHS at the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital and the four other homeopathic hospitals around the country.

They also wrote to Primary Care Trusts who in many cases have withdrawn their funding so that patients who were getting the benefits of complementary medicine on the NHS have had their treatments stopped.

1. They make the point that the NHS cannot afford these treatments, but homeopathy, herbal medicine, acupuncture, and other therapies actually save money by preventing chronic illness.
2. The cost of running these hospitals is tiny (£6 million a year) compared with the entire budget for the NHS (£100 billion).
3. The homeopathic hospitals specialise in other therapies too, not just homeopathy - nutrition, herbal medicine, reflexology, acupuncture etc.
4. The doctors say that homeopathy doesn't work - try telling that to the thousands of people who use it and have great benefits.
5. Because a treatment is not scientifically proven doesn't mean it doesn't work. Homeopathy works for animals and they can't tell you how they feel or recognise a placebo.
6. The public want freedom of choice and do not always want to be matched up to drugs on a doctor's computer program.

Read more about complementary therapies, nutrition and preventative health on Frances Ive's website: www.healthysoul.co.uk