One of the promoters of a natural therapy service being trialled at Wanganui Hospital said some of the reaction to the project was predictable.
The therapies on offer include Maori healing, Christian prayer, massage, reiki and meditation but will involve only Whanganui District Health Board (WDHB) staff.
But some WDHB members are not impressed, with Clive Solomon saying the board should be paying attention to getting proper standards of care and empathy in conventional Western medicine first "before embarking on bone-throwing with taxpayer money".
"Best practice, evidence-based medicine is the foundation of the scientific practice of medicine. Other modalities might have their place [but] in other areas [and] under different governance," Mr Solomon said.
Michael Laws was more dismissive, calling the trial "a seriously stupid decision" that had not been to the board for discussion. Both Ray Stevens and Phillipa Baker-Hogan Ray said the board should have a least been alerted to the project, instead of learning about it through a press release.
Emergency medicine physician Chris Cresswell and Maori health director Gilbert Taurua joined forces to look at the viability of Wanganui Hospital offering such a service and to seek the support of the WDHB management team.
Dr Cresswell has a long-held interest in natural therapies, which he said provided treatment options complementary to conventional treatments. However, Mr Solomon questioned Dr Cresswell's involvement, saying he believed such practice was not only unethical and unscientific "but seriously outside his scope of practice".
Dr Cresswell said although the project was stepping outside the boundaries of his training a bit, it was still acceptable with the NZ Medical Council. He said it would have no effect on his other work within the hospital and that the pilot scheme was not unfamiliar therapy for him.
"I worked in Te Waipuna some years ago and it worked so well there. People were comfortable with it and we saw good results with it," he said.
Mr Taurua said the response from some quarters was predictable.
"I knew it was going to push the boundaries, but my frustration really is that a lot of information that had been captured in the media is incorrect.
"It isn't a pilot involving patients, it isn't costing the taxpayer anything. This is not about replacing traditional or Western medicines," Mr Taurua said.
He said given Wanganui's high Maori population, he was delighted that a Maori healing clinic would be available.
A few New Zealand hospitals were offering such clinics but Mr Taurua said he believed the one being trialled here would be the country's first-ever multi-model, natural therapy hospital service.
The service will not incur any cost for the WDHB or the taxpayer and only a minimal cost for users, who will be asked to make a koha (voluntary donation) if they can.
An unused building next to Te Awhina has been set aside as the venue where people will attend appointments with a range of natural therapists wanting to provide a complementary health service. Before that can happen, everyone wanting to provide treatments will be interviewed and vetted and hospital staff only will be invited to attend the initial three-month trial, due to begin in late July.
If the trial is a success, the WDHB will be asked to give the go-ahead for the service to be offered to the wider community.