Emergency departments trial acupuncture alongside standard pain care

One in three people who walk into an emergency department are there because of acute pain. It's a constant, grinding reality of emergency medicine—the waiting rooms full of people hurting, the pressure on clinicians to manage suffering quickly and safely. Now two Melbourne institutions are testing whether acupuncture, delivered by trained practitioners working inside the emergency department itself, might ease that burden alongside the medications and interventions already in use.

The collaboration between RMIT University and Northern Health, called the PANDA project, is running at Northern Hospital. It's not a controlled clinical trial designed to prove whether acupuncture works in isolation. Instead, it's an implementation study—a practical examination of whether the treatment can actually function within the chaos and constraints of a real emergency department, where time is scarce, staff are stretched, and patients are in distress. Registered acupuncturists are embedded in the workflow, working alongside emergency clinicians to offer the service to patients experiencing acute pain.

The early signals suggest appetite for this approach. When the project team surveyed emergency patients, more than 90 percent said they would be willing to try acupuncture if it meant they could avoid or reduce medication use. Among healthcare workers surveyed, 90 percent expressed interest in having non-drug pain management options available for their patients. These figures reflect curiosity and openness rather than proof of effectiveness, but they point to a genuine gap: both patients and staff are looking for alternatives to pharmaceutical-only approaches.

Professor Zhen Zheng from RMIT, who specializes in acupuncture and integrative pain care, led the development of the project's framework and helped create guidance for weaving the service into existing clinical protocols. "Acute pain is one of the most common reasons people come to the emergency department," Zheng said. "If we can offer an effective, low-risk option that reduces distress and supports clinicians, that's a meaningful step forward for patient-centred care." The emphasis on supporting clinicians is deliberate—this isn't about replacing their judgment or adding burden to their day, but about giving them another tool.

Dr Heng Cheok, deputy director of Northern Hospital's emergency department, is overseeing the implementation. The team is documenting what works, what doesn't, and what patients and staff actually think as the service operates in real time. Amy O'Brien, the acupuncturist working in the department, frames the work as fundamentally collaborative. "Collaboration sits at the heart of the project, with a focus on adapting traditional approaches to support both patient experiences and staff workloads," she said.

One patient, Barsha Pokharel, arrived at the emergency department with severe left shoulder pain. After receiving acupuncture treatment, the pain diminished noticeably. "I am extremely satisfied with the care I received," Pokharel said. Her experience is one person's account, not evidence of a pattern, but it illustrates what the project is trying to understand: whether this integration can actually reduce suffering in the moment and improve how patients experience emergency care.

The project is funded by Northern Health's research grants program, RMIT University, and community donations. What emerges from this work—whether acupuncture can be sustainably delivered in emergency settings, whether it genuinely reduces distress or hospital time, and how it changes the experience for both patients and staff—could reshape how emergency departments approach pain management. For now, the team is watching, listening, and learning.