The NHS has been slammed for recruiting a Japanese energy healer despite health bosses admitting there is no evidence to support the practice.
Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust is advertising for a ‘spiritual healer/reiki therapist’ — with the band four role paying up to £26,000.
This job description states that the successful candidate will activate healing in patients suffering from cancer using energy principles.
Reiki, an ancient Japanese healing technique that promotes relaxation and stress reduction is called “Reiki”. The healing arts claim that healers channel the energy of their hands into patients.
The practice is said to be popular among several Hollywood stars, including Gwyneth Paltrow, Cameron Diaz and Angelina Jolie.
Sam Buxton Sunflower Healing Trust funds the Manchester role. It is a charity that trains “healer” to give reiki along with mainstream NHS services.
NHS England admits that the practice is not supported by scientific evidence.
Experts attacked the health care system’s support for the “quackery” in the middle of a funding crisis, calling it ‘frankly unacceptable’.
Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust is advertising a reiki healer role that requires they ‘activate the healing process’ with ‘energy principles’
Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust is advertising the new role as a band four job that can be paid up to £26,282 per year.
The advert says: ‘The responsibilities of a reiki healer include treating clients using energy principles, preparing clients’ medical histories, and activating the healing process.
“To succeed as a Reiki healer you must have a calm disposition, excellent team work skills and exceptional customer service skills.
The healer will work on cancer patients at Manchester Royal Infirmary’s palliative care department.
The staff will treat up to six patients per shift. This includes people with terminal illnesses.
The best way to heal someone is to be sympathetic and client-centered.
The advert says: ‘This may include handling sensitive information regarding the patient’s health or social situation.’
Reiki practitioners are said to move their hands across the body to transmit healing energy to specific areas.
Experts denounced the trust’s decision to introduce the alternative therapy. It does not do more than give the placebo effect.
MailOnline was told by Professor Edzard Ernst of the University of Exeter as chair of complementary medicine.
It has been proven false many times.
“That is what the NHS should be.” [endorse]This kind of quackery in the middle of a financial crisis is truly appalling.
Michael Marshall, the project director at the anti-pseudo-science charity Good Thinking Society said that reiki was ‘completely antiscientific.
The Daily Telegraph quoted him as saying that there were no energy fields within the body that could have been manipulated either by Reiki practitioners or anyone else.
‘That’s not how the human body works and the NHS shouldn’t be endorsing it, even indirectly via a charity, because it can lead to some people being put in harm’s way.’
Mr Marshall said patients can get the same emotional support provided by reiki healers elsewhere without having to deal with someone ‘who believes in magic’.
NHS admits that there’s no science backing reiki for the health care system
NHS England spokeswoman said that there was no evidence supporting the use of reiki for treatment.
But Angie Buxton-King, co-funder of the Sam Buxton Sunflower Healing Trust, insisted there is ‘lots of patient evidence which the NHS is very keen on’.
According to Mrs Buxton King, the charity was started by her daughter Sam (aged 10), who died from leukemia at age 10.
It is not intended to replace conventional therapies, and instead it will be offered as an adjunctive medicine.
Reiki, she said, is “very well thought of” by the hospitals who have used it since 2006.