BBC documentary: ‘Get Well Northern Ireland’

[Blue Wode]

For readers living in Northern Ireland, ‘Get Well Northern Ireland’ is being broadcast by BBC One NI tonight at 2100 BST:

Londonderry woman Fances Gillen was addicted to prescription drugs for more than 20 years.

-snip-

However, her life was turned around when she tried homeopathy as part of a pilot scheme being run in two centres in Northern Ireland. The Get Well Scheme allowed GPs to refer patients to complementary therapists, with the NHS paying for their treatment.

-snip-

Programme producer Ronan McCloskey said: "Without a doubt the therapies featured in this programme help patients and make them feel better. But who should pay for them?

-snip-

Boo Armstrong, the director of London-based Get Well UK, which delivered the scheme in Northern Ireland, said the therapies can heal people and save the NHS money. "People are paying taxes for the NHS," she said. "People who have got money can afford to buy complementary medicine which often works, so they are paying twice for their health. People who haven't got the spare cash to pay twice, they get sick."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7381832.stm

More about Get Well UK here (including a photograph of Boo Armstrong with Prince Charles):
http://www.getwelluk.com/

[SKIRRID5]

Boo Armstrong? Should that be Woo Armstrong?
So the "therapies" work? It has been pointed out ad infinitum that a fringe practitioner often has more time to spend with a patient, and will tell them the kind of thing they want to hear. The patient will respond to the attention and feel better. That is far from being the same as saying the actual treatment (the water or sugar doses) has any effect.
Since homeopathic consultations and "medicines" are pleasant and undemanding, very many people, given a choice, will opt for them rather than orthodox medical treatment. If the fringe treatments are paid for by the NHS, everyone will have that choice. Then, we'll get the horror stories of kids dying because their parents didn't take them to a proper doctor. So, in this instance, it is not necessarily ideal to give everyone choice.

[Mojo]

See also David Colquhoun on this "experiment".

It seems to have been one of Peter Hain's. See also here.

[FarSideOfTheMoon]

I think we might even have had a thread on this board at one point.

Channel 973 on Sky is BBC NI.

I often use it when the international football is on - so I don't have to watch that England rabble.

[Blue Wode]

Thanks for the reminder about the Sky channel, FarSide.

All in all, the programme didn’t seem to make a terribly convincing case for CAM on the NHS. The patients who were featured tended to suffer from chronic pain/anxiety/depression and the narrator admitted that they were often viewed by medics as heart-sink patients. As you might expect, they all seemed to enjoy the touchy-feely/highly focused attention sessions with their various alt-med therapists and, invariably, all of them ‘felt better’ afterwards with some of them even managing to cope (in the short term) without their prescription medications.

The acupuncturist seemed to be more than a bit of a woo with her claim that her patient’s ‘energy’ needed to become “more rounded” in order for her to start to heal. But it was Finbar Magee, MD and kinesiologist, who really excelled in the woo stakes with those vials which he placed on his patient’s chest to test the rate at which some substance (I think it was lead) was being eliminated from her body.

Very sad to see the lady who had suffered from breast cancer choosing to spend £150 a week on vitamins and minerals as an alternative to chemotherapy.

And with regard to the photographer who had his neck manipulated twice by a chiropractor, it was very remiss of the programme’s producer not to include a mention of the dangers associated with that procedure.

The best part of the programme had to be the end where a message on the screen told us that the CAM pilot ended in March 2008 and that “currently there are no further plans to provide complementary therapies on the NHS in Northern Ireland”.

For anyone who didn’t see the programme, you can read a synopsis of it here (indeed, it may even become available online via this link for a short time):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/tv/programmes/getwell/index.shtml

[Blue Wode]

An update on the pilot scheme featured in the programme:

Homeopathy and acupuncture backed for NHS funding

Homeopathy, acupuncture and reflexology are among a range of complementary and alternative therapies a new trial concludes should be provided on the NHS.

More...

http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=35&storycode=4121906

Patients call for NHS complementary therapy


A year-long pilot scheme in Northern Ireland has found that complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) can offer significant health improvements to NHS patients.

-snip-

The scheme was implemented by social enterprise Get Well UK, which aims to improve access to complementary therapy on the public health service.

-snip-

Founder of Get Well UK, Boo Armstrong, says of the results: "The results from this project speak for themselves – complementary therapies improve health and save money. These findings are consistent with other service evaluation from across the UK. A personalised health service will need protocols to include complementary therapies.

More...
http://www.hospitalhealthcare.com/default.asp?title=PatientscallforNHScomplementaryt herapy&page=article.display&article.id=15637

It's worth noting what Boo Armstrong of Get Well UK had to say about our Health Minister, Ben Bradshaw, when she was announced as runner-up in the recent Courvoisier Future 500 competition:

Armstrong also spearheaded a pilot project in Northern Ireland, commissioned by the government, which is now complete and being assessed. 'The Health Minister is considering the way forward.’

More...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/courvoisier500/the-final-five

Additionally, it's worth noting what Reed Paget, one of the Courvoisier judges, had to say about Get Well UK...

'Boo's project had the most profound effect on me. I completely agree that by relying on western medicine we are ignoring years of world history. I've had osteopathy and chiropractic treatment, so can vouch for the effectiveness of complementary therapy, and think Boo's project is very important.'

...because Mr Bradshaw's ringing endorsement of OfQuack seems to indicate that he shares Ms Armstrong's and Mr Paget’s penchant for anecdotes and testimonials:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7828593.stm

[Blue Wode]

Oops. Double post.

[Blue Wode]

A correction to my post above. Apparently it’s not Ben Bradshaw, but Michael McGimpsey, the Northern Ireland Health Minister, who is considering the way forward following the results of the pilot project implemented by Boo Armstrong’s Get Well UK outfit:

The analysis has come from a market research company called SMR, run by a chap called Donal McDade. It is not a scientific analysis. It is at best a customer satisfaction survey. At worst, it is a set of graphs and figures that will please SMR’s clients – GetWellUK.

-snip-

Michael McGimpsey, the Health Minister in Northern Ireland, has now had this report on his desk for quite a few months. The government web site describes this as an ‘independent report’. It is anything but. Let us hope he has the wisdom to see through this charlatanism and let the report get buried under a mound of more pressing issues.


http://www.quackometer.net/blog/2009/02/northern-ireland-nhs-alternative.html

[QuickDraw]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the update on that, but is there anywhere that you know of that you can watch the oprginal program? I've tried looking on the internet everywhere i know of and can't find it.

I lived in Northern Ireland for a few years as i was growing up so i would love to see this program.

Thanks in Advance

[Blue Wode]

Hello QuickDraw, and welcome to the UK Skeptics forum.

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the update on that, but is there anywhere that you know of that you can watch the oprginal program? I've tried looking on the internet everywhere i know of and can't find it.

I lived in Northern Ireland for a few years as i was growing up so i would love to see this program.

Thanks in Advance

You can still view the programme via the three video clips at the foot of the page in this link:
http://www.getwelluk.com/news_awards...getwellukontv/