Jan Millington, sixty-six, of Southborough’s Victoria Road, said the only treatment, which eases pain caused by radiation burns, is acupuncture and she receives the treatment at the Royal Tunbridge Wells Homeopathic Hospital.
Twenty years ago, whilst being treated for breast cancer, she suffered the damage but Mrs Millington said: "There is nothing in mainstream medicine that will help me. Acupuncture is the only treatment that helps. It relieves the symptoms."
Mrs Millington, who suffered a paralysed arm because of the damage and could not work, also added: "I shall be devastated if the hospital closes. It's healthy, non-invasive treatment and it's not expensive."
She concluded: "What do 15 needles cost? Yet you hear of drugs costing thousands and you have side-effects."
Many patients are treated at the hospital thanks to the payment by the Maidstone Weald and South West Kent primary care trusts. But in October, it will become part of a new, larger PCT also covering north Kent. In order to break even, during this financial year, the PCTs are planning to save ten million pounds, and they are currently spending £160,000 annually at the homeopathic hospital in Tunbridge Wells’ Church Road, which they would like to save.
A spokeswoman for a Maidstone Weald PCT said new patients would have their cases assessed by a PCT panel to ensure that the best treatment based on clinical evidence when they are referred by their GPs for homeopathic treatment at the hospital. There will be a review of the treatments of the existing patients too.
Mrs. Millington helps to run a support group for patients suffering from radiation damage, said clinical assessment of homeopathic treatment is very difficult. She said: "Everyone is different and homeopathic treatment is tailored individually. The doctors look at the whole person."
She added: "If I can't have treatment at the homeopathic hospital I would have to go somewhere else and pay, but I may not be able to afford it."
The spokeswoman for Maidstone Weald PCT said the new policy had already started. The patients could go back to their GP to see what other choices were available if they did not agree with the decision of the treatment panel.
In a bid to save the hospital from closure, campaigners are holding a public meeting soon. According to Dr Helmut Roniger and Dr David Ratsey, both consultant homeopathic physicians there, the centre and its satellite clinic at Bromley could lose ninety per cent of their patients if all primary care trusts in the catchment area of the hospitals adopt the same policy. Only ten per cent of the hospital’s patient base will remain at that hospital and Dr Roniger said: "It would no longer be viable."
2,050 follow-up patients and 408 new patients were dealt with at the hospital last year.
Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust currently runs the hospital, employs about twelve staff, and has 4 consulting rooms at the hospital. Dr Ratsey said: "It's unlikely that we would be able to maintain the present level of staffing."
According to the doctors, with regard to the changes there have been no formal public consultations but to let patients and other residents have their say they will hold the public meeting soon at the Church Road hospital. The patients were also urged by them to write to local MP Greg Clark and the Maidstone Weald and South West Kent PCTs to object.
The spokesman for Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust concluded: "We are working closely with the local PCTs to clarify the implications the changes will have on homeopathy services for both patients and staff."
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