No place in a hospital

Stuff reports:

A natural therapy clinic at Whanganui Hospital offering massage and traditional Maori healing has been shelved after a doctor linked it to witchcraft and wizardry.

The clinic also offered Christian prayer and energy healing – including reiki and colour therapy – to staff for health and wellbeing.

With the potential exception of massage, none of these things should be offered in a hospital. If stupid people want to spend money on energy healing and colour therapy, then they can waste their money with private providers. But for fuck’s sake why would you have a hospital associate itself with such nonsense.

Whanganui District Health Board confirmed the closure of the natural therapy clinic at its meeting on Friday. General surgeon and health board member Clive Solomon said yesterday that the service was shut because a doctor who set it up was affiliated to the Whanganui School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

He believed a high-ranking doctor had complained about the senior doctor’s involvement in wizardry.

“The outcome is correct as far as I’m concerned. The reasons, though, are really worrying.”

Mr Solomon said he was “not anti these holistic treatments at all”, but when a hospital “gives credibility to things like colour therapy, that becomes a problem”.

Absolutely.

I’m not too worried if a doctor wants to play wizard or witch in their spare time. Each to their own. But hospitals should be about proven scientific medicine.

The Whanganui School of Witchcraft and Wizardry blog is here! I think they are actually serious!