Patients angry over plans for complementary therapies

7:10pm Wednesday 27th May 2009

By James Connell

PATIENTS with chronic back pain have criticised plans to treat the condition with acupuncture and exercise classes instead of painkilling jabs.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommends that people with lower back pain should be prescribed a course of acupuncture, exercise classes or some form of manual therapy of massage if their symptoms persist.

Peter Littlejohns, the institute’s clinical and health director, said the benefits of the complementary therapies were “sufficiently robust” to recommend them over less cost-effective procedures such as X-rays and injections into the spine.

But the proposals provoked anger from patients in Worcestershire, some of whom have already been told by Worcestershire Primary Care Trust they are not eligible for repeat injections.

Sandra Charlton, aged 47, of Highfield, Callow End, was told on Thursday, February 19, by letter from the PCT that the injections would no longer be routinely available.

She was one of 187 patients told that they would be removed from the waiting list for the jab although some have since been told they can still get them, including 79-year-old Rose Glazzard, of Chalfont Close, off Ombersley Road, Worcester.

Mrs Charlton who suffers intense pain because of the degeneration of her spine still does not know whether she is eligible for the jabs and criticised NICE’s recommendation yesterday.

Mrs Charlton said: “This is where the NHS is starting to fall apart. All they seem to have been told is trim here and trim there. I’m very much against this – they’re taking away what we should be entitled to.

“I still don’t know whether I will be allowed to get the injections. They don’t seem to care how this decision affects people’s lives. They say do exercise. The only exercise I can do because of the pain is water aerobics.”

The decision backs the earlier findings of Worcestershire Primary Care Trust where health bosses said they want to explore other methods of controlling pain, including cognitive behavioural therapy and physiotherapy.

Brian Hunt, 72, of Lansdowne Rise, off Lansdowne Road, Worcester, has now been told he will not get the injections at all and says one of the jabs would be about £800 if he went privately.

He is now taking painkillers and going to extend classes in a bid to manage his pain.

He said: “Again, it’s all about money and about making it go around. Not everybody will respond to acupuncture although I do think it is a valuable tool for some people. I think the injections should still be available to those who need them.”