In the bustling corridors of Auckland City Hospital, staff rush from one patient to another, attending to their needs and juggling complex medication schedules. It’s an environment ripe for the occasional slip-up.

It is much worse than you would think. Up to 70 per cent of the medication histories of elderly patients admitted to Auckland City Hospital have omissions or errors. Though most mistakes were minor, a third of the discrepancies had the potential to cause discomfort or harm.

But this is nothing in comparison with 200,000 Chinese who die each year due to the drug misuse. Many Chinese know a lot about their bodies and often self-prescribe. While this practice seems to be very safe when they use herbal remedies, it appears to be very fatal when they play around with pharmaceutical drugs.

In an ever-evolving healthcare landscape, the possibility of human error remains a daunting challenge. As we strive to create a safer, more reliable system for managing medication, safe and effective natural therapies like acupuncture offer an avenue for wellness that minimises risk and promotes overall well-being. It offers a holistic, non-invasive approach to healthcare that bypasses many of the risks associated with traditional pharmacological treatments. It’s an age-old practice backed by an increasing body of evidence, demonstrating its effectiveness in treating conditions such as reproductive health disorders, mental/emotional balance, chronic pain, some digestive issues to name a few.