A public hospital in Adelaide is tapping into 60,000 years of traditional medicine from Aboriginal healers — also known as Ngangkari — to help treat Indigenous patients.

Key points: The traditional practice uses touch, breath and bush medicine to heal a person's spirit

The traditional practice uses touch, breath and bush medicine to heal a person's spirit The program couples traditional Aboriginal treatment with Western medicine

The program couples traditional Aboriginal treatment with Western medicine A health expert says doctors have been pushing for Ngangkari to work with them

Under the program, the traditional healers will work alongside doctors and nurses to provide what Lyell McEwin Hospital staff have described as a "complementary" treatment to medical care.

Aboriginal woman and cancer survivor Roslyn Weetra, 70, said the program was a step in the right direction for Aboriginal people.

In 2002, the Narungga Country woman was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma and sought Ngangkari treatment from her brother-in-law, Brenton Weetra, a Ngangkari from Port Augusta.

"It gave me a strength that I didn't know I had to fight the disease — the cancer — alongside the medical treatment," she said.

Ms Weetra completed six rounds of chemotherapy. But a year later, the cancer returned and was more aggressive.

She underwent intense chemotherapy and radiation and, at one stage, was admitted to the intensive care unit.

She said she again called on the Ngangkari to assist with her spiritual healing.

"The Aboriginal healing helps you, gives you the strength, to mend you on the inside while you're going through the chemo treatment and the radiotherapy," she said.

Roslyn Weetra, 70, sought a Ngangkari for healing while undergoing cancer treatment. ( Supplied: SA Health )

Ms Weetra said Lyell McEwin Hospital's Ngangkari program would make it easier for city-based Aboriginal healers, many of whom live in remote communities.

The 60,000-year-old practice involves the use of touch, breath and bush medicine to focus on healing a person's spirit.

"Living in the city, you're sort of closed off from your Aboriginal culture, language, caring from the country," she said.

"If I didn't have that Ngangkari healing, I wouldn't be as strong, I wouldn't have been as balanced, I wouldn't have been as … resilient."

New program, the right medicine

Latrell Branson, 22, also from Narungga Country, said he suffered from migraines and severe back pain when he was a teenager and sought the help of a Ngangkari.

He said he was more likely to seek medical treatment at Lyell McEwin Hospital, now that he knew he could also access a Ngangkari.

"I used to suffer really bad with pain in my back … [I] got that looked over and haven't really had much pain since," he said.

"It makes you feel more connected to your country, to your heritage. It makes you feel better that you've got [that] there to access."

Traditional Aboriginal healers Gerard Watson and Margaret Richards will work at of the Lyell McEwin Hospital. ( Supplied: SA Health )

Doctors and health care executives have welcomed the Ngangkari program, which couples traditional Aboriginal treatment with Western medicine.

Founder and chief executive officer, Dr Francesca Panzironi, said supporting the 60,000-year-old Aboriginal traditional medical knowledge system in hospitals provided a sense of culture in a hospital setting.

"In simple terms, when people get sick the Ngangkari use their traditional healing methods to take away the pain," Dr Panzironi said.

"The healers use methods including Pampuni (healing touch), Mapampa (blowing) and Marali (spiritual healing and bush medicines) to complement mainstream treatment.

"Patients say things like, 'I felt the energy had left me'. After seeing a Ngangkari, they say they feel better, like their spirit has returned."

Trying to 'close the gap'

Lyell McEwin Hospital executive director of Aboriginal health, Kurt Towers, said doctors had been pushing for Ngangkari to work alongside them for some time.

"There's been a real want and need from our clinicians in the hospital and the mental health centre to want to incorporate traditional beliefs and spiritual care to complement the mainstream medicine," Mr Towers said.

Mr Towers said there had been a need to incorporate spiritual care to mainstream medicine. ( ABC News )

Dr Simon Jenkins works at the hospital and said he believed it would encourage more Aboriginal people to seek medical treatment, because they would know they could also access Ngangkari healing.

"If you don't address the spirit of the Aboriginal people in the healing process then they are far less likely to engage in the healthcare system," he said.

"A simple phone call and we'll be able to get someone in to help them with their spiritual healing.

"This is one step forward for our journey in all of our services to try to close that gap," Mr Towers said.

Ngangkari are determined by their bloodline and most are from the APY Lands in remote South Australia and parts of central Australia.

It is believed the traditional healers inherit their healing powers.