A NORTH-EAST hospital has become only the second place in the country to train doctors and nurses in Western-style acupuncture.

Until now the only place in the UK to offer Western medical acupuncture training for health workers was Liverpool.

But because of the enthusiasm of doctors and nurses in the North-East, Darlington Memorial Hospital is now offering courses.

The British Academy of Western Medical Acupuncture has been based at Broadgreen Hospital in Liverpool for the past ten years although it dates back to the 1970s.

The academy does not use the ancient Chinese method of diagnosis based on the idea of Yin and Yang, Five Elements and pulse diagnosis.

Instead the academy uses acupuncture as a way of harnessing the body's own natural pain relief system and to disrupt "pain pathways" in the nervous system.

Following a huge increase in interest in complementary medicine in the past few years, the Liverpool-based academy has seen a surge in the number of NHS staff wanting to be trained.

George Neiman, president of the British Academy of Western Applied Acupuncture, said; "Many of our doctors and nurses have been involved since we started teaching 30 years ago in the opening of pain-relief clinics within the NHS and with great success in the treatment of patients. This year we have started an additional training course in the Postgraduate Centre at Darlington Memorial Hospital.

Dr "Jambu" Jambulingam, one of two consultants based at Darlington Memorial Hospital's pain clinic who routinely use acupuncture with patients, said: "What really convinced me was when acupuncture helped relieve my migraine. Now we use it on a range of conditions and see very good results."

Senior staff nurse Sarah Mooij said about 84 per cent of patients treated with acupuncture at Darlington reported an improvement in their symptoms.

"We get a lot of patients who reduce or even give up medication altogether.

"A lot of people feel much better, their mobility increases, their sleep improves and some can go back to work," she said.

Currently, the Darlington "academy" is training nine nurses, from as far afield as Scotland and Sheffield, and hopes to enrol more local health workers.

"What would be great would be to train up more local GPs, nurses and physios to take some of the pressure off the pain clinic," Ms Mooij added.

Patients usually have seven or eight hour-long acupuncture sessions.