The aims of Healthy Bristol

Healthy Bristol is working to promote integrated healthcare, which means providing the people of Bristol with the best quality Integrated Medicine approaches within the community and mainstream healthcare settings.

Integrated Medicine (IM) offers access to the full range of healthcare choices including the best of orthodox and complementary medicine, self-help approaches and psycho-spiritual support.

The overall purpose of the Healthy Bristol Project, with its Integrated Medicine Directory and the emphasis on quality assurance, education and research, is to enable orthodox healthcare professionals to feel safe to recommend or refer patients to our listed practitioners and support agencies. The Directory is also available to the members of the public to help them find the best practitioner resources in the Bristol area.

Integrated healthcare not only widens patient choice, it also provides a resource for responding to new clinical priority areas, demand management and local and national health service targets. Integrated healthcare can provide cost effective treatments for a range of medical and psychological and emotional conditions, whilst empowering people to become actively involved in their own self-care.

Our vision is to help develop a health policy and service that offers the very best medical care while also taking account of patients’ emotional and spiritual and self help needs. Healthy Bristol supports sensitive natural therapies to ease suffering and facilitate healing; empowering self-help approaches and active partnerships between patients and their medical professionals.

The overarching ethos is active health creation through which the people of Bristol are supported to create their optimum health, from whatever starting point, to recover from illness, prevent illness and reach their optimum potential for health and happiness, both individually and in community settings.

To achieve this vision, we are working to create a climate of trust, understanding and co-operation between mainstream healthcare professionals and integrated healthcare practitioners by:

Creating a membership organisation for those who support the development of Integrated Medicine (IM) in Bristol and would like to know more about developments in Bristol and nationally;
Helping improve patient choice by bringing a wider range of high quality supportive healthcare resources to the attention of mainstream healthcare professionals and to the general public in and around Bristol;
Creating the Bristol and Bath Integrated Medicine Directory – a quality assured directory of Integrated Medicine resources in Bristol comprising details of: existing NHS integrated medicine services, complementary practitioners and organisations, those who provide psychological and spiritual support and those who teach and provide self-help approaches within the Bristol area and who reach the Healthy Bristol minimum standards for professional care. (The minimum criteria for each section of the Directory are viewable on the 9 questionnaires in the Bristol and Bath Integrated Medicine Directory)
Co-operate with and help inform practitioner organisations about how to bring their services in line with NHS requirements, particularly in relation to clinical governance, regulation, training and practice standards
Creating access to high quality IM research evidence;
Offering guidance on the use of holistic/IM approaches for common healthcare problems;
Educating conventional and complementary healthcare practitioners in the IM approach to create mutual understanding;
Helping set up and research pilot Integrated Medicine Healthcare Projects in mainstream healthcare settings, providing, in the longer term, evidence to Bristol healthcare purchasers about the effectiveness and cost benefits of Integrated Medicine;
Helping to support and take some of the burden of care from over-worked NHS professionals;
Fundraising for the Healthy Bristol Holistic Help Support Fund to offer complementary therapies, psycho-spiritual support and self-help approaches free or at low cost to people who cannot afford them or gain access to them yet on the NHS.

Overcoming the obstacles to the development of Integrated Medicine

Despite this, demand for complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) from GPs and patients alike is high and growing. A large majority of patients (circa 75%) would like to receive complementary therapies, but most cannot afford to pay the costs of private treatment. Despite this, service provision is still restricted by the:

lack of knowledge of the scientific evidence base,
lack of understanding of the regulation of CAM practitioners,
lack of information about its cost effectiveness,
lack of a cohesive policy towards its use.

Healthy Bristol aims to present the growing evidence base and regulatory information that is required and help the development of a pro-CAM policy at local PCT level so that local doctors are able to make referrals for appropriate treatments to local complementary practitioners for local patients.

For more details see Background to the Directory

The current position of Integrated Medicine in the Bristol area

Some IM services are already being offered throughout Bristol, paid for by the PCTs, hospital trusts or community funds. These provide examples of what is possible within the NHS.

They include:

Homeopathic treatment at the Bristol Homeopathic Hospital;
A chiropractic service at Hartcliffe surgery;
A community project, knows as CHIPS (complementary health in partnership) offering a variety of therapies at subsidised cost as part of a regeneration Community at Heart programme in Barton Hill, working out of Corbett House Clinic, pending the completion of the new Healthy Living Centre;
The Knowle West Healthy Living Centre;
The Helios general practice in Stoke Bishop;
Individual GPs offering complementary therapy such as acupuncture, hypnotherapy or homeopathy.

The Bristol and Bath Integrated Medicine Directory aims to include all the NHS based IM services and will grow as Integrated Medicine develops within Bristol.

Most healthcare professionals in Bristol have little or no education in IM approaches and are currently unable to help guide their patients in the use of complementary therapies. They are also largely unaware of the wide range of support services and self-help available in the community, offering psycho-social help to their patients.

Healthy Bristol seeks to ensure that doctors and patients have access to highly qualified practitioners and works towards the development of an integrated service, where IM approaches are offered alongside conventional treatments, free at the point of delivery.

PCT policy on Integrated Medicine in Bristol

Bristol North PCT Professional Executive Committee (PEC) under the Chairmanship of Dr Will Warin has debated the proposal from Healthy Bristol that they become involved in the development of Integrated Medicine Services in Bristol. They have agreed in principle that if there is sufficient evidence to support the introduction of IM services to help meet local health targets they would like to make IM services available for the people of North Bristol.

Healthy Bristol have been invited to provide a ‘PEC check’ of available background information evidence for effective Integrated Medicine in April 2005.

Financial help for those on low incomes to access IM help

Healthy Bristol has created a designated fund to help those on low incomes to receive IM help at low cost or free (ie unemployed, elderly, students, those on low-incomes)

Those wishing to apply for such help should write to the Healthy Bristol Trustees, Support Fund, 77a, Alma Red, Clifton Bristol BS8 2DP

Stating:

a) Your current problem;

b) Your financial position;

c) The type of help being sought;

d) The amount of financial help being sought.

The ability of Healthy Bristol to help will depend on the availability of funds that will fluctuate according to our success in fund raising. Therefore if applications for help are turned down it will most likely reflect a lack of available funds at that time.

Donations to the Holistic Help Support Fund are always welcome. All fundraising help is greatly appreciated!

MEMBERSHIP OF HEALTHY BRISTOL