Doctors, patients and researchers explore how Asian immigrant communities in London can access the healthcare they need.

The series Skin, produced by the London Minorities Unit of ITV company LWT, provided insight into issues affecting Black and Asian communities in London in the early 1980s. In this edition the practice of herbal medicine by Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi Hakim is explored through observations and interviews with academics, patients and the practitioners themselves.

You might expect television reporters to be alarmed at the growth of Hakims practicing in London, but Skin manages to compress a refreshing degree of nuance and empathy in its 30-minute programme. Practitioners describe in their own words their philosophy on healing, as well as the training they received in the countries where it is an accredited practice.

Most compelling of all, though, are the voices of Asian patients disenfranchised from the NHS by language and cultural barriers. Broadcasters from the London Sounds Eastern programme on London Radio describe the thousands of people ringing in to their confidential health advice line: "I initially thought that they would ring up about colds and flu, measles and whooping cough; in fact majority of the calls were about psychosexual problems, marital problems, social problems." The need for compassionate health care was clearly as important then as it is now.

This edition of SKIN examines the use and abuse of the world of Hakims, Asian doctors who base their medicine on traditional herbal concepts.