Despite the fact that this practice has provided information over the past 6 years of the success rate of acupuncture for a variety of conditions in those patients referred by other GPs', the Primary Care Trust has decided to withdraw this service from this Practice because we no longer belong to the NHS. Yet the same Primary Care Trust is allowing and paying for non-medical personnel or lay Practitioners to provide the same service. When questioned as to whether the success rate of treatment by these lay practitioners had been validated or quantified the answer was NO. The Primary Care Trust had not measured any of these factors in lay practitioners providing acupuncture over the past 2 years.

So we now have a system whereby NHS money is being spent on a treatment by non-medical personnel who have provided no evidence of outcome of their acupuncture. Secondly some of the conditions being referred to these practitioners need medical supervision during the course of treatment. This would be equivalent to allowing a glider plane pilot to take over the Jumbo jet you are travelling in and land it at Gatwick airport. I leave you all to decide on the wisdom of the Primary Care Trust but suggest that if you do not like this dumbing down of services I would suggest you do something about it and not wait for the Jumbo jet to miss the runway!!!!