It’s time to face a new emergency medicine in Australia. In a radical departure from accepted hospital practice across the nation, the Emergency Department at the Northern Hospital in Melbourne is incorporating ancient techniques into its new approach to care.

When patients arrive at casualty, they will now be treated with acupuncture to reduce symptoms such as pain and nausea. Final year acupuncture students at RMIT University will deliver the treatment, which will be used in conjunction with standard medical practice. Students before working at the Melborne emergency department went to train in Chinese TCM hospitals.

Doctors will seek to try to find other ways of treating patients at the emergency department. The primary goal is to find out when acupuncture is helpful and when is better not to use it. From battlefield acupuncture used in the military we know that it works well in extreme pain situations. So it makes sense to offer this therapy when in pain or experiencing nausea instead of giving drugs.

Other hospitals will be following the lead and if the trial is successful will be integrating into emergency departments around the country.