The four-month trial was ended abruptly after one month, despite 100 per cent positive feedback from voluntary staff participants.
Mrs Patterson, attributing the comments to senior medical staff, said that publicity about the pilot (programme) "will have created confusion and possible anxiety among the community we are here to serve". That's why it had to close after only one month.
Get that! Confusion and possible anxiety. Sounds like a famous Monty Python routine. Michael Palin et al jump about, dressed in clerical red. Palin as Cardinal Ximenez intones: "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition. Our weapons are ... fear and ... confusion and anxiety."
A number of people helped to shoot the programme down as well. Some included the usual suspects: the former mayor and his obliging sidekick, surgeon Clive Solomon, both DHB board members.
It's alleged that some senior doctors objected that the programme was "contrary to their religious beliefs". I hope the persons who hold those views will demonstrate the courage of their convictions, come forward, and explain just how massage, or Maori healing or praying with the chaplain is in conflict with religious beliefs.
The former mayor was upset because he wasn't asked for his permission and, using the language that is his wont, said the trial was "seriously stupid". Seriously? Once again, no surprises there.
Clive Solomon also objected. I'll say right out, as a surgeon I have a lot of respect for Mr Solomon. I supported his refusal to practise beyond his ability when pressured to perform Caesarean sections by the hospital. That's professionalism, and I admire him for it. As a politician, not so much. He's too eager by half to grasp at extreme positions and become intransigent and unmannerly.
Mr Solomon objected to the programme as not sufficiently evidence-based to be part of "the scientific practice of medicine".
While I hesitate, albeit slightly, to venture to debate with a surgeon regarding "the scientific practice of medicine" I would like to remind the good doctor of the research done by Dr Oliver Cope of the Massachusetts General Hospital in the 1950s that demonstrated the effect of psychological states on outcomes in gall-bladder surgery. And there is more recent evidence to demonstrate similar effects in outcomes of arthroscopic knee surgery.
What does it all go to prove?
Simply put, the mind and the body are one. And that's why hope, optimism, and faith (aka the placebo effect) account for one-third of positive surgical and medical outcomes.
Why not make use of what we know? It may or may not be evidence-based or scientifically proven, but if it works and has no ill effects, who cares?
A relaxed staff is likely to be more effective in treating patients. Costs involved were none. Sounds like a win-win to me.
If Mrs Patterson really wants to counter confusion and anxiety she should bring back the programme - or come up with a transparent account for stopping a no-cost benefit that works.
For my part, I'd recommend viewing the doco on TV One at 8pm tonight about a doctor who's trying to integrate traditional modern medicine and natural therapies.
Who knows, we might learn something.
