Hi
just reading artical in daily mail on line the nhs are now ditching acupuntre for back pain they say excercise is better
i think its more penny pinching than any thing
i have had acupunter on and off for 6yrs for my back hip and pelvis
i was bed bond during my 2nd pregancy.due to been high risk.and also had spd in my pelvis i could barly walk and on crutches the midwifes and hosp did acupuntre and aromotherpy
after few treatments of acunputre i.was off crutchs and hardly had pain in my pelvis and back.acupuntre also cured my hayfever
i have acupuntre on my back and help for last 2yrs it really helps
really shocked nhs are no longer doing it as their so many people that need it and helps them
again its goverment droping vital funding to nhs thats making them drop so many vital servies

My gp surgery still refers patients for five acupuncture sessions. Plus my friends gp surgery does too. I find acupuncture really helpful. If I pay myself it's £35. If I had to pay I would do so.

Not a great time to be hearing that.    Two days ago I woke to really bad (and anybody who has experienced muscle spasm will attest to that) pain in my right shoulder.   It was so bad that a planned trip on Thursday had to be cancelled because I didn't dare get behind the wheel of my car.   I couldn't turn my head.    Acupuncture might have been a good idea, although I am feeling a bit better today having spent 48 hours virtually on my heat pad and dosed up too.    But yet another NHS service is unavailable.    TOO BAD.    I was once told by a GP, that 'this isn't the National Happiness Service' ..... TOO RIGHT.

Yes my gp same
i find acupuntre and refelexogly really good really helps pain and sleep

Really shocked that nhs are ditching acupuntre its madness

Mamabas try talking turmeric .rosehip also arnica tablets and cream
hope you fell better i now what your going throw

my gp was saying they have droped counsling.homopathy referals they are no longer avilable
also midwifes at hosp i had my little boy no longer do acupunter and armotherpy its was so populer their was waiting list!!!
Nhs is joke its goverments fault they keep cutting budgets
i am waiting for nerve reducin test on my hands at hosp gp said its years waiting list
my aunt was orthopedic nurse she left nursing due to cuts and changes in nhs she hated it as it was no longer nhs she went in to in 1970s to train as nurse

I didn't even know that these alternative therapies had been available.  I have always paid for osteopath and acupuncture.  Although there have been many other cut backs for traditional treatments.

I was rushed into hospital with a flare up of COPD last week.  I had an infection on my lungs so the biggest worry with this disease is pneumonia.  I was on a nebuliser 5 times a day.

It saves hospital beds if you get treated at home.  I have been set up with my own nebuliser at home.  Obviously I put myself on 6 steroids a day and antibiotics which is the norm.  I am now treating myself at home, with daily phone calls from the Respiratory team.  With a couple of visits a week.  They still work hospital hours, so weekends and bank holidays are still covered.

I anticipate that there will be many more similar cut backs.

I do think complementary therapies are something that the nhs should cut back on, its not like some of these things are really that expensive and there is a far greater need for the money to be spent elsewhere.physio is and likely will be under the nhs but acupuncture, osteopathy, chiro and the like really unless there is money locally for them to be covered should be down to the individual to cover. Always paid for mine and they aren't a necessity imo,helpful yes.

What about people that are disabled and on benifts they can not afford alterint medicins
i only got refexolagy as my gran
paid for it as it was my birtday
i can not offord £25 -£35 for treatment
so people on benifts and disabled will suffer due to cuts
physo no longer works on me as had it all my life since i was 2yr
bloody govermermt they are so anti.disabled do not care !!!

Also due to funding cuts etc by anti disabled goverment theirs 2yr waiting list for aids and adamtions
councils are no longer cutting grass for disabled and elerdly again to funding cuts
home helps and carers are no longer cookinh helping again to budgit cuts
they are only alowed to pop in for 10mim to check clients
do not get me started on disabled benfits
this world we live in so anti disabled and discramamted agaist disabled people

Get well soon JeanSW and MamasBas

Say what you like but i don't believe they are must haves on the nhs, these therapies aren't must haves, might be helpful yes.
Id rather the nhs deal with emergencies in hospitals first and foremost and then other things come down the line.
Sorry just don't think they are as important as some things that need more money into them. Physio is adapted to each case, not heard of it doesn't work for me now, maybe its the physio themselves that needs to be looked at and they need to change their treatment plan. Many hospitals have hydro pools too. There isn't anything wrong with a physio for the nhs being trained up in a therapy but for the nhs to outsource to a private therapist I don't believe they should pay for that.
Private is private for a reason, I've paid out for private specialists and yes its cost me but its bloody been worth it.
Its with anything if you don't have the money you have to cut back and budget better, same goes for our government, cuts need to be made and ita non essentials which need to be looked at in various aspects and making the money go further by changes.
Who ever is in government, doesn't matter what pm or political party they would all need to do cuts, quite simply we need to get on with it for now until the economy settles and its far better than it was a few years ago.

My aunt would arge that with you as she started nursing and traing 1970s she loved nursing but left due to nursing not same they have to more paperwork than nursing
the amount of vital serves that have been cut disgusting
they do not even offer people counsling even if you have lost child theirs no help i now whar i am talking about as i have lost two babies their no help or suport as its been cut too

I have tp agree with sue jaw. If the nhs have to cut back and it certainly looks like they have too it's going to be these kind of things that go first. Something has tp be done before we are paying for each attendance at the doctors and hospital. I have also paid to have these treatments and found them invaluable but unless we are all prepared to have tax increase  to cover it can't be afforded .as far as couselling is concerned  free services are still available through mind and in our area the nhs either by self referral or via the hospital.stretched as all services are but still there

Mind is not avible in my area unfortanly infact theirs nothing in my area every thing been done away with

Was going to say that we have lots of free support for counselling here too. Each nhs area spends money differently as well. What you have in one area you might not in another. Think different cancer treatments, some areas will pay for certain treatments and others wont.

Good for you staying in your own home JeanSW.    I hope you'll feel better.   And I thought it was only our dogs who checked the dates (always falling sick on a weekend, and even more so, a Bank Holiday eh.

And thanks for the good thoughts re myself.   I am feeling less pain today.   I have to find out whether this is diabetes -related as some muscle pain can be.   Worrying.

Jackie whilst I have loads of sympathy for you, I do believe some of the things you are saying about the NHS may not apply elsewhere. I think you are in Scotland and correct me if
I am wrong,but I believe the Scottish NHS is run under devolved powers, therefore they are the responsible body for the choice of cuts made.

Yes i am in ayrshire but under hosp in paisley and glasgow the cuts up her are really bad my gp told my lot i have fab gp he fed up due to all cuts he can not refer his pasintes too diff servise ie counsling.home help etc etc

Do you pay for prescriptions in Scotland?

If you are pregnut.elerdly .unemployed and disabled you do not pay for prespiction

Nobody pays for prescriptions in Scotland

Mind do have services available inAyrshire have just checked their website.might take  a while but worth ringing if u or anyone needs help.  their funding will be different to nhs funding as  they are a charity

Swings and roundabouts then, most of the public pay for them in England, so would guess there would be a lot more money in the nhs if Scotland adopted the same protocol

I do not like to be made out lier i waa only going on what doc and midwifes said to me about counsling

Perhaps I'm missing something, but I'm not sure how you've been made out to be a liar; what has upset you?

I cant see anyone making you out to be a liar. FF was just offering advice that you maybe able to get some help through mind. Sometimes gp's don't always know what's out there with various charities and organisations. At least you've got something to look into and maybe other charities national and local ones which may also further give you help you need, no harm ib having a gander on the net and calling them

Prescription charges only applied to certain people Suejaw.  I personally only paid for 3 years because it was free until i finished full time education and then a few years on i was diagnosed with an exempting condition.  The reason Scotland doesn't charge is because a) it offsets very little in terms of cost - the illest people with the most expensive conditions to treat are almost never in a position to be paying and are exempt anyway (by dint of them being disabled, on unemployment benefits or long term sick benefit).  There is no way charging someone £6.50 for their course of hydrocortisone to clear up their wee rash is going to help pay the £90 a week it costs to do the wound care of the diabetic double amputee next door.  And it also squeezes the middle earners unfairly because they are the few who can pay.  Taxing the bit of the workforce that contributes merely because they are able to contribute isn't deemed fair in Holyrood, plus the administration of the charge isn't free, you have to pay people to take care of it.  Removing the need for the administration was ALSO a cost cutting exercise.  Thus it was abandoned, as it wasn't worth it.

And the alternative therapies are being abandoned because the most up to date evidence suggests that they are no more effective than placebo in treating the conditions they were used for by the NHS.  Similarly when you go to a pharmacy and get medication on the Minor Ailments scheme in Scotland (a service that allows certain people to access prescribable-but-also-sold-over-the-counter medications such as for children) they will only give you the things there is good evidence for the efficacy of - they are happy to give (a small bottle of generic) ibuprofen for a child's fever but are heavily minimising the giving of paracetamol, which has an effect only slightly better than placebo.  They will give the 8-hour lotion headlice treatment but NOT the 30minute mousse because the latter has not been proven to be effective.  They will not give cough medicine of any kind because it doesn't work.  etc. etc.

This is a cost-cutting exercise, yes, but it is based on medical evidence, not on arbitrary abandonment of useful therapies.

Thanks for the explanation, not living in Scotland I wasn't sure how it works with the NHS. I believe our script charges are over £8 now in England for those who have to pay

I am finding homopathy meds works far better than meds given by doc i am on 100g amitritptyline co codmal they do not even help sever pain i.am in.24/7
My friend jugested turmirce .rosehip am taking 1400g turmuric and high dise rosehip rhus tox cream i am finlay getting some relif from pain
was geting course of 8 acupuntre thro physio at my doc
my doc is really in to homopathy but due to cuts he can no longer refer me to homopathy docs at gartneval as they have done away with it due to cuts
doc tried me on tramadol.dic

Dicofenic.ibrofintiom numures gels and creams
for sever pain i am in due to ME.hip.back.pelvis .neck.shoulder.hands
pains so sever at times ido not sleep or eat
ut hompathy is def helping and its shame funding cut and done away with pain

if i need cough meds .vits etc i go to pound shops
i also take vitams too

Yes, it is very unfortunate for those that find these treatments ARE effective (placebo effect is often dismissed by people, but is a real and valuable treatment technique in fact - the mechanism of pain is so poorly understood still, i think it doesn't matter WHY the pain is gone so long as it is gone).  My dad has arthritic knees and found some relief with acupuncture but unfortunately the effect didn't persist (he would have almost no pain the afternoon of the treatment day, then increasing pain back to his normal baseline over the following three days) and after a number of months he stopped as he felt it wasn't any better/different that taking his pain pills and they at least he got on prescription.  He is in England and his local trust NEVER paid for it, he was paying himself.

Have you been referred to a pain management department groveclydpoint?  Someone i know has lasting moderate-severe pain from an accident which shattered her pelvis and lower spine (but didn't paralyse her) and has had good results from the cognitive behavioural therapy and meditation techniques taught to her at the pain management group.  There is no cure for her condition, she is as healed as she will ever be and surgery not an option.  Her Dr told her the pain "originates in the brain" - she initially took offence thinking he meant she was making it up or "hysterical" and the pain clinic explained that no, he meant literally ALL pain, felt by EVERYONE, originates in the brain, which is why it is possible to feel pain in a limb amputated decades before.  It's so poorly understood and very difficult to treat this sort of pain which doesn't originate from an acute injury but from some other sensory mechanism, as yet undiscovered.  Anyway she has been able to come off a good few of her medications, which has vastly improved her life due to reducing the side effects she has to live with, using the techniques they taught her.

I don't want to appear harsh but I think it's time the NHS started to account for the money it spends and if it means cutting back on alternative medicines then so be it.

Alternative medicines are only available and have any kind of benefit for a few sufferers. The money spent on these should be redirected to help the majority and the few it helps should pay themselves.

Just my opinion ......

Yes i have been referd to pain clinic but they wanted to but me on even more meds i had newborn baby at time told them no as i did not want to be zombie my late mother was under same pain clinic she had over 60 meds to take
she had been breaking young horse git thrown off and broke her back all pain clininc did was  but her on very high doses of pain killers .she ened up with toxic shock from morphine

i try not take pain med i am finding homopathy lot better i try and keep busy when ME ok taken up floristey and crafts also love garding and lo.g Alks up on moor with pointers
i have had to stop ridding due to sever pain but thinkinh about starting to carriage drive again
my gp fab he would rather i went down homopathy route as he said its works better than meds he can give me their use to be nhs homopathy clinic at on of glasgow hosp but due to cuts its closed

Far better would be to go back to experienced medically qualified management & dump the over paid bureaucrats who have no understanding of running a hospital/health service. The bureaucracy that has replaced medical management(initiated the NHS hating Tory party governments over the years since it's conception)costs more than the medical treatment it is there to provide ☹
Alternative treatments were all the average person could afford before the NHS & are a drop in the ocean of it spending

Yes that what my gp has said .he waa saying that lot of clinics and serves have been done away with due to giverment etc many were vital serves and clinics and waiting lists are getting longer too its year waitin list for nerve reduction clinic ie hands
their was new super hosp built at southern general they use to be 5 hosp in glasgow and fab yorkhill kids hosp i was yorkhill kid
anyway they built new super hosp and closed yorkhill.victora infamary.western inf.southern gen they built one massive super hosp they use to 4 a&e in glasgow now their only 1 since new super hosp opened itsnow called queen elizathbeth university hosp the a&e at super hosp not coped die to been only a&e covering glasgow waiting times have gone up andnot coping at all
i attanded suthern for my back the new hosp amazing but its struggling as its now 4 hosp plus kids in one hosp
millions have been spent on new super hosp but struggling as it can not cope
midwifes are no longer allowed to spend time with mums if they are struggling to feed etc
my stepmum the witch works in care home even care home have changex as nurses.cleaning staff have so much paper work todo now they spend more time doing paper work than lookin after patients etc

Hi Jackie

Try the pain management  clinic they offer good advice and can let you use a tens machine on loan for a while. They also can do referals for acupuncture ,hydrotherapy sessions. I'd rather see the funds kept for emergency medications than spent on alternative med.  I've paid and had free sessions. A few charities offer to fund a few sessions worth finding out. I also found for me mind  over pain helped too. I hit the pain wallah slowly managed with positive thoughts, small walks a drop in med to control pain-not have the pain control me.

I already have tens its really good
esp if i am at show i have it on when i am showing
they do not do hydrotherpy anymore unfortaly as i did want to try it
but i do have swimming pool 5mim from my house but its closing down they are building new one along with new high school and primary about 15min from my house
i find trying to keep busy helps getting my mind off pain also reading at night helps get my mind of pain too
also finding sitti.g out in sun well when we get any sun.did say to my gp about sittin in sun helps hes all for homopathy and diff methods for paim relif instead of giving out painkillers

Why not gp back to the pain clinic,you aren't pregnant now

If you have a tens machine why only use it for a show? You can use it more regularly for pain.

I have to say I've tried one and it does nothing for me, I've also tried the pain clinic and that was useless too.

At the moment I'm using mind over matter and just getting on with it and when the pains too much waiting for a good day and start again......

I am same i would rather use mind of matter than pain meds
no i am not pregnut do not want to go back to pain clinuc as all they do is pumb you full of meds

last night i was in sever pain put tv off picked book up read until 1am its really good book forgot about pain
i do use tens at home sometimes but would rather read or do something else to take my mind off pain
sometimes its hard as ME makes my back hip pelvis.neck.shoulder.hand pains lot worse
also bath in epsom salts

When was the last time you actually went to a pain clinic, seems whatever anyone suggests youboo boo it because it didn't work years ago. How about being open yo things and try again as things do change and move on.

I know someone who went to a pain clinic not long ago, she cannot take pain meds as she is hypersensitive (a few weeks of a mild NSAID caused a seizure).  They looked at other options, including mental work.  Worth trying again, and telling them at the start that you don't want meds.

It was about 6yrs
i have disgust things with my gp he said i am doing all right things its pointless going back as he said they will go down strong med route which he said is pointless i trust my gp and his view and advice

I wasn't even offered medication at the pain clinic...

So you wont even try? What harm is it going to do by going along, saying I don't want meds and what else they can offer? You don't need to take any meds, no one will force you to so not sure why you are being so closed minded. There are so many support groups and charities out there as well that if you actually open yourself tp them you might find further help for the various problems you have that could actually help you. Sorry to say all I head from you is moaning and negativity and someone not willing to try things that others have suggested. If you wont help yourself that why should anyone else?

Support groups are definitely a good idea, if you aren't already with some.  Facebook is brilliant for this - I have gotten so much help for my hypermobility on there, compared to zero from any GP or specialist.  Same for my thyroid - thanks to a support group I am properly medicated and supplemented, without that group I dread to think what state I'd be in now as the NHS will not acknowledge that anything is wrong.

Pain clinic put my late mother on so much med she was zombie and ended up with toxic shock due to pain clinic over dosing with morphine

i am fighting ME i get on with my life yes its b.....awful fatigue and sever pain but i get on with it yes i stoped ridding and can not work but have loads hoppys my gp fab he listins to me then we disguse
a friend of family been digisosed with me her doct giving her no help or support she been told she will never get better but my doc says if you fight it and get on with life
the friend giving up work.car.she spends all her time in bed and has taken to drinking i have tried to support her and my gran tried to but she given up and wont fight
i fight and do not let MEand other issues get to me

I do not have fb.their is no ME support group in ayrshire i have looked in to it and asked at doctors and hospitals

Why keep looking back,what happened to others and your previously is one thing but even if they say take meds which you have before,if you don't want to take them no one is forcing you to. Seriously I really think I would be all guns blazing and going to everything I could be is ME SUPPORT groups in person,on the phone and online. I would also be In touch with mind and other support services for your pain and I would go back to the pain clinic and ask what they can do aside from meds or if there are new meds on the market or even trials going on. Give everything and anything a go.
By looking back into the past at all the negatives you wont move on,look forward and say I will find a way and take everything you can from all sources,if it doesn't work so be it but you might surprise yourself if you move into pastures new and the future.

You have the internet to get onto fb, make a fake name up if needs be and find these groups. There are plenty of online sources and phone numbers to call. Don't think that is too difficult to do