(a)   like many of the hospital’s services, the maternity service had been undergoing a period of change due to reducing budgets;

(b)  the maternity acupuncture service had been challenged for a number of years and a recent inspection by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) had also challenged the validity and continuation of the service;

(c)   the service was unable to guarantee one to one care with every woman in the acute setting and as such all available resource had to be redirected into the acute care setting;

(d)  the research and trials available on the benefits of  this kind of acupuncture was poor, inconclusive and did not show benefits over and above a placebo treatment. It was not felt that there was enough evidence to support continued acupuncture service provision in this area;

(e)  commissioners had confirmed that the hospital would not receive a payment over and above the tariff to fund the service.

(f)    the maternity acupuncture service was set up in 1988 initially to deal with pain relief in labor and later developed  to deal with serious antenatal problems;

(g)   an online petition had received1400 signatures and two previous service users  had said they would be unable to deal with another pregnancy without the acupuncture service;

(h)  the trust figures on the numbers of service users  were misleading and inaccurate;

(i)    the closure of the service was purely a cost saving exercise which would have a significant impact on the care of pregnant women in Plymouth;

(j)    there were many areas of routine care which were not evidence based;

(k)  NICE guidance was retrospective and there was high quality evidence available to support the service;

(l)    acupuncture reduced the pharmaceutical costs for the NHS;

(m)acupuncture is a main stream provision in health services and is provided in various settings, there were upward of 4.5 million acupuncture treatments per year.

(n)  the numbers stated in the Trust’s report related to first appointments rather than total sessions;

(o)  there was a large number of signatures from patients on the petition but also signatures from people across the country;

(p)  many members of the public would be unable to afford the level of acupuncture required to deal with Hyperemesis Gravidarum;

(q)  although it was stated that acupuncture was cost effective the evidence base was not strong and needed time to be developed;

(r)   the service cost £180 per appointment;

(s)   the Chair of the Maternity Service Liaison Committee had used the service;

(t)   there was £1800 left in the charity account of the acupuncture service and there had not been any income from patients for the service.

(1)  that the NEW Devon CCG Western Locality are requested to consider options for providing Acupuncture Services for women suffering with Hyperemesis Gravidarum inthe community or Primary Care settings;

(2)  in the context of the transformation of services, that the panel plans a future review into maternity services provided from Derriford Hospital. The panel will investigate actions which could be taken to enhance antenatal and postnatal service choices which could be provided in other community settings.