The rise and fall of complementary medicine in National Health Service hospitals in England

Whilst Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) has never been systematically integrated into National Health Service (NHS) provision, there has been some limited evidence of a developing presence of CAM in NHS hospital based nursing and midwifery. This paper reports on a qualitative study that sought to document the nature and extent of such integrative practice in England, and the interpersonal and organisational factors that facilitated or impeded it. The data revealed a history in which attempts to integrate CAM had some initial success underpinned by the enthusiasm of individual practitioners and a relatively permissive organisational context. However, this was followed by a decline in service provision. The fact that the services were established by individuals left them vulnerable when more restrictive funding and governance regimes emerged. Whilst the data revealed a consistent story about CAM within the NHS, it must be recognised that the use of a snowball sample limits the generalizability of the findings.