A complementary health business has relocated from Oxenhope to near Skipton to cope with an expansion in client numbers.

The Worth Healing Centre, which was established by Richard Atkinson in 1991, offers treatments such as acupuncture, homoeopathy and herbalism.

The new site in Broughton has three treatment rooms and has been kitted out with state-of-the art computerised diagnostic equipment.

Mr Atkinson, 49, who is also a qualified physiotherapist, said the move will help him cope with a rise in the number of people he treats as the new site is based in the middle of his catchment area. The Centre, which treats people suffering from a variety of health problems including arthritis and allergies, was set up to work alongside GPs and hospital trusts.

Mr Atkinson, who left the UK in 1979 to work at the King Khalid Military City in Saudi Arabia, said: "We all heal differently. It's a question of first identifying the natural healing process in individual patients, then maximising it so people get better quicker.

"Computer technology has played a major part in this process for the past 15 years. It has taken medicine and healing to a virtual level and has, in effect, become tailored healing."

After returning to England in the early 1980s Mr Atkinson set up his own physiotherapy practice in Oakworth.

Mr Atkinson, who holds postgraduate diplomas in a host of complimentary therapies, added: "Since the late 1980s I have been working to bring orthodox and complementary therapies closer together - to close what is a huge divide.

"A lot of people remain sceptical about complementary therapies, but they can and do work. The process is totally scientific and takes much of the guesswork out of the healing process. There are so many people out there suffering needlessly."