5th October 2008
Herbmedic accused of high-pressure selling
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/worl...et=0&page=1
Herbmedic accused of high-pressure selling
The health chain's pushy tactics needle patients
A three-minute consultation with a non-English speaking acupuncturist and my life-long addiction to smoking would soon be history. At least that’s what the saleswoman and translator at Herbs and Acupuncture on Dublin’s Grafton Street told me last Wednesday.
Apparently unconcerned about the “existing medical condition” indicated on the application form I had signed, she said the acupuncturist had prescribed €1,440 worth of treatments and €27 worth of herbal tablets a week.
To take advantage of a special 30% discount which would reduce the treatment cost to a mere €800 for 16 sessions, advance payment was needed “immediately”, she said.
This “free” consultation at a shop operated by the British-based Herbmedic chain broke several of the good practice guidelines self-imposed by other regulated acupuncturists in Ireland.
One was the non-English speaking consultant, another the use of “advance selling”, but worse, according to Bernadette Ward, director of the Irish Acupuncture Foundation, it was “dangerous” because of the failure to check crucial medical details.
There are, at least, 16 Herbmedic stores trading in Ireland, but the chain has found itself defending what other acupuncturists and customers allege are questionable practices.
Ward, whose organisation is linked to the British Acupuncture Council, said she had received between three and four complaints a month about Herbmedic-operated shops since their arrival in the country three years ago, many of which raised similar issues.
“What you experienced was bad practice. It’s entirely against our code of ethics for an acupuncture practitioner to ignore somebody’s medical history, particularly when they clearly state they have one,” she said.
“They certainly shouldn’t be prescribing tablets on this basis. It’s dangerous. In our organisation we demand that our practitioners speak a basic level of English because we do not believe they can make recommendations unless they can communicate with the patient directly. We also advise against advance payment for treatments,” she said.
Ward claimed she had met with representatives from some of Herbmedic’s stores to discuss these complaints. “There is evidence that some of the stores have improved procedures,” she said.
At two other stores visited by The Sunday Times — at Dublin’s Dundrum Town Centre and Northside Shopping Centre — the consultations were in line with the Acupuncture Foundation guidelines.
But recent callers to Joe Duffy’s radio show on RTE Radio One complained of high-pressure sales techniques in various stores around the country. The Sunday Times has spoken to other people who expressed concern about the treatment they received.
Teresa Shanahan, from Dublin, visited a Herbmedic store on Dublin’s Henry Street last summer to ask about treatment for back pain.
She said staff at the store diagnosed arthritis within minutes of examining her. She was offered a €40 session after which she was presented with a bill for €280. “The girl told me it was for another seven sessions which I needed. I didn’t have the money and she became very aggressive, saying I could put it on a credit card,” says Shanahan.
Shanahan’s doctor subsequently told her she did not have arthritis.
Helen Darby, a 79-year-old Dublin woman, became ill after she was treated at Dr China, the Herbmedic-operated store at Northside.
According to Teresa Murphy, Darby’s niece, she was admitted to hospital last week with health problems that date from her visit to the shop on May 31 to seek information on back pain. A salesperson took her immediately to see an acupuncturist who treated her and then prescribed two types of herbal tablets.
Neither the salesperson nor the acupuncturist, according to Darby, asked if she had an existing medical condition or was taking other medication. At the time she was taking pills for blood pressure and vertigo.
Murphy said her aunt paid €485 in cash and was treated without having filled in a form. “She walked in for advice because she had hurt her back and they didn’t even get her to fill in the form until it was all over and then they skipped over the questions about medical history,” she said.
Murphy said her aunt suffered heart palpitations and severe shaking after taking herbal supplements.
The Sunday Times asked Ward to check the supplements and she said that the tablets Darby was given could interact with other medication. However she added that both tablets were legal in Ireland.
The Sunday Times made several attempts to discuss this case and its own investigation at the Grafton Street store with Herbmedic. We left repeated messages at the company’s British headquarters. We also faxed a two-page outline of the allegations and requested a response.
We contacted the manager of the Northside store who said he was new to the company and was not aware of Darby. He supplied a phone number for his company manager who was given details of the allegations and said she would call back with a response.
On Saturday, Herbmedic headquarters said it was not given enough time to respond to our queries about how customers were treated. Commenting on Shanahan’s claims, a spokesman for the Herbmedic store on Henry Street said: “The doctor \ would have more than 20 years’ experience.”
He offered Shanahan a second visit to the store to have her knee examined again.
In Britain, where Herbmedic operates up to 180 stores, it was fined for advertising a herbal remedy for cancer “by mistake” in 2005, following an investigation by the UK Trading Standards Authority.
The following year an undercover investigation by the BBC showed that company shops were prescribing herbal remedies without proper consultations and, most seriously, without asking for the patients’ prior medical history.
There is no regulation of health practitioners in Ireland. In 2006 a report by the Irish National Working Group on the Regulation of Complementary Therapists recommended statutory regulation for acupuncturists in Ireland because of the risk to patients. The Irish Acupuncture Foundation has also written to the Department of Health requesting a meeting on the issue.
“Our organisation has been self-regulating for 20 years,” says Ward. “We have a very strict code of ethics and if we get a query we investigate it immediately. These chains are not part of our organisation and there’s nothing we can do.”
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