Half of general practices offer patients complementary medicine

Half of general practices in England now offer patients some access to complementary or alternative medicines.

New research shows that there has been a substantial increase in provision since 1995, when a similar study by the same authors found that 40% of practices were offering complementary or alternative medicines.

“Increased provision by the primary health care team, coupled with its use for priority patient groups, suggests that CAM [complementary or alternative medicine] is regarded by many GPs as having a role to play in patient management,” says a report of the study in Family Practice (2003:20:575-7). The …