Free acupuncture sessions in Shropshire are limited by NHS

Patients at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital have been sent letters to say they are entitled to a maximum of 12 sessions of free treatment.

But the move was criticised by Carole Lawrence, from Longden Common near Shrewsbury.

Mrs Lawrence suffers chronic pain from osteoarthritis and has been receiving acupuncture for five years. She also has fibromyalgia, a long-term condition that causes pain all over the body, but has been told to return to her GP to discuss other methods of treatment.

Mrs Lawrence said: "This has been long term for me. I started having acupuncture five years ago and it keeps the pain at bay. I have been told to go back to the GP but that's a waste of my time. There is nothing else available and already I can feel the pain coming back."

Mrs Lawrence received a letter from The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital earlier this month. It said: "This service is for up to a maximum of 12 treatment sessions at which point the patients will be discharged. You will have no further appointments booked for you by the pain team. If you feel that you still require assistance then please request that your GP assists you in accessing services in primary care."

Mrs Lawrence believes the decision is purely "money based" after hydrotherapy services were also cut. She said: "I used to attend Shrewsbury Hospital for hydrotherapy which was accessed through the pain clinic and this also was taken away from me. It seems to me that patients with long term chronic pain conditions are suffering at the hands of accountants. I feel that this is yet another cost cutting exercise by the hospital trust to the detriment of patients."

Helen Plant, founder and leader of the 40-strong Telford and Wrekin Fibromyalgia Group, said: "I can understand the monetary problems but most of us have chronic conditions and as such we need ongoing treatment.

"A lot of our ladies have had great benefit from this treatment. The condition is not going to go away in the 12 months that are being offered to us."

Piers Moreau, Clinical Director for Musculoskeletal Services at the hospital, said: "NICE (the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) Guidance, issued in 2009, states that clinicians should consider offering up to a maximum of 10 sessions over a period of 12 weeks.

"As a trust we currently go beyond this and offer a maximum of 12 treatments to patients over the course of a year.

"As mentioned in our letter to Mrs Lawrence, we recommend that she, or any other patient who feels they still need treatment to relieve pain at the end of their course of acupuncture treatment, should go to see their GP to discuss this. There may be other courses of treatment."

'This treatment is the only answer':

When Shropshire Star sub-editor, Sue Chowdhuri, slipped a disc last November triggering a painful attack of sciatica, she found acupuncture was the only treatment that gave her relief.

Sue, 54, said: "The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) currently recommends that acupuncture is considered as a treatment option on the NHS for persistent lower back pain.

Many sufferers, like me, who have used acupuncture know that it is very effective, but is often needed on a long-term basis to prevent pain recurring.

"If the RSH caps treatments to 12 sessions it will, I think, leave many people struggling to lead normal lives and hold down jobs. Early one morning I felt an unusual 'pop' in the base of my spine and an excrutiating pain began in my left leg.

"My GP diagnosed this as sciatica, probably caused by a bulging disc pressing on the sciatic nerve. I was given an information sheet on some exercises to do and prescribed pain killers and anti-inflammatories, and told it should right itself in a couple of weeks.

"After learning that the prospect of any NHS investigation such as an x-ray or MRI scan was way down the line, and there was a long waiting list for and pain treatment such as physiotherapy, I hobbled out of the surgery in pain, worried about being able to hold down my job, and unsure what to do next.

"Still in a lot of pain many weeks later and unable to go to work, I had to bite the bullet and pay for private treatment. I decided to give acupuncture a go and found Hilda Chow Ho-Ching, at the Natural Health Centre in Shrewsbury's Radbrook Green.

"Hilda assessed my back and saw immediately the problems that had plagued me for years. She said that acupuncture treatment would restore the balance to my body and trigger its natural healing response.

"The session lasted about 45 minutes and afterwards the edge had been taken off the pain.

"Over the week until my next session, things continued to improve. After two sessions, the visible swelling in my back had disappeared and, after four sessions, the sciatic pain had gone. Continued sessions keep my lower back spasms in check so that I can go to work. Acupuncture has been a brilliant answer to my woes."