A natural therapy clinic at Whanganui Hospital which offered energy and traditional Maori healing has been axed after it was linked to witchcraft and wizardry.

The clinic was set up as a three-month trial in August but was stopped in late September after a senior doctor at the clinic made public comments linking the clinic to witchcraft and wizardry.

Whanganui District Health Board (WDHB) chief executive Julie Patterson told Fairfax the comments, which appeared in a newspaper article, confused the public and for this reason the clinic was closed.

She has not named the doctor and would not comment on whether action had been taken against him.

WDHB member Clive Solomon told Fairfax that the service was shut because a doctor involved in the trial was associated with the Whanganui School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

The clinic had been run by 15 therapists who only offered treatments, which included reiki and massage, to hospital staff. About 75 staff were treated over five weeks.

Therapists were not allowed to use spinal manipulation or needles and were not permitted to prescribe ingested remedies or rongoa (traditional Maori medicine).