The project was commissioned by the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety (DHSSPS) with a view to exploring the potential for CM within existing primary care services in Northern Ireland.

The project demonstrates that CM fits well within a primary health care setting with both significant health gains for patients and health system savings.

In the pilot, 713 patients with a range of ages and demographic backgrounds with either musculoskeletal or mental health conditions were referred to various CM therapies via nine GP practices in Belfast and Londonderry.  Following the pilot, 80% of patients reported an improvement in their symptoms, 64% took less time off work and 55% reduced their use of painkillers.    CM therapies included acupuncture, chiropractic, osteopathy, homeopathy, reflexology, aromatherapy and massage.

Despite initial scepticism, the GPs involved were almost unanimously in favour of continuing with integrated care after seeing tangible results. In 99% of patient cases GPs said they would refer the patient, or a different patient, to the scheme again and in 98% of cases GPs said they would recommend the service to other GPs.

The report surveyed the needs of patients, GP and CM practitioners with a number of issues raised by each group.

Affordability was identified as the main barrier for patients wishing to continue with CM outside of the pilot program.

Some GP's found difficulty in matching their patients with appropriate therapies, with most GP's supporting the need for further educational interventions such as seminars, talks with practitioners and having more written information on CM.

It was also recommended that the DHSSPS and the project partners give consideration to integrating other approaches to measuring health impact (e.g a formal case control study) on an ongoing basis so that outcomes are not limited to the perceptions of the stakeholder groups.

This project is highly relevant to work that NICM is undertaking in this area. NICM is currently inviting applications from individuals and teams seeking to conduct research into integrated care and associated data collection to demonstrate safety, clinical efficacy and cost-effectiveness.  Seed funding program

View executive summary - Evaluation of a CAM Pilot Project in Northern Ireland (2008)

  Executive Summary 28.38 Kb

View full report - Evaluation of a CAM Pilot Project in Northern Ireland (2008)

 Full report 949.70 Kb

Updated February 2009