THE NHS will no longer provide routine funding for hydrotherapy in Reading.

Berkshire West Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has been spending £290,000 a year on providing the treatment for around 300 patients with a range of conditions, but it claims other forms of physiotherapy are more cost effective.

It also states there is “a lack of definitive clinical evidence” that shows hydrotherapy is more effective than land-based physiotherapy.

The governing body of the CCG, which faces a £20 million funding gap, agreed to stop routine funding for the treatment when it met on Tuesday, December 8.

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It means the NHS organisation will only fund hydrotherapy if a patient’s doctor submits an Individual Funding Request (IFR) and proves there are “exceptional circumstances”.

But the Royal Berkshire Hospital’s hydrotherapy pool, which councils and charities pay for people to use, remains open.

Shairoz Claridge, director of operations, said: “The CCG has a duty to continually ensure limited NHS resources are spent prudently and the services we commission are evidence based and offer clinical benefit to the maximum number of patients.

“While there are patient-reported benefits from the use of hydrotherapy, there remains a lack of clinical definitive evidence that points to benefits over and above land-based physiotherapy.”

She also said the decision will bring the CCG “in line” with most other NHS organisations, that do not routinely fund hydrotherapy.

Mindy Dalloway, from the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP), said claims that hydrotherapy is not an effective form of treatment are “not substantiated in relevant scientific literature”.

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“We really recognise, on the behalf of our members, the benefits hydrotherapy provides for many patients with many complex conditions,” she added.

The CSP states hydrotherapy can help patients with long-term conditions, such as arthritis, ankylosing, spondylitis and multiple sclerosis.

Dr James Kent said the CCG states that hydrotherapy “has no superior clinical effectiveness to land-based therapy.”