NHS funding of homeopathy

Homeopathy on NHS risks lives, says top scientist

This just in...

The Government's most senior scientist today warned that homeopathic medicine was putting lives at risk.

Sir David King said the alternative medicine, whose supporters include Prince Charles and novelist Jeanette Winterson, was of no medical use whatsoever.

He criticised the Department of Health for supporting the use of the technique.

"There is not one jot of evidence supporting the notion that homeopathic medicines are of any assistance whatsoever," he told MPs.

"Therefore, I would say they are a risk to the population because people may take them expecting they are dealing with a serious problem."

Sir David, chief scientific adviser to Gordon Brown, said he was concerned that the Medicines Health and Regulatory Authority allowed homeopaths to state on labels what ailments their remedies will treat.

"How can you have homeopathic medicines labelled by a department which is driven by science?" he said.
Click to expand...
.
...and a deafening silence from the SoH:

No one from the Society of Homeopaths was available for comment.
Click to expand...


More...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/li...ain.html?in_article_id=500045&in_page_id=1774
 
Last edited:
Well, the SoH has deigned to comment on Sir David King’s warnings about the risks of homeopathy in today’s Telegraph:

Jayne Thomas, the vice-chairman of the Society of Homeopaths, said: "There is a lot of proof out there that homeopathic medicines do work."

However, she added: "If a patient was seriously ill, any genuine homeopathic practitioner would encourage them to visit a GP."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/mai...AVCBQWIV0?xml=/news/2007/12/07/nhpathy107.xml
Click to expand...


Lots of comments already.
 
What has taken King so long? We really needed him to say this years ago. I heard he is leaving office soon - perhaps he feels safer now.
 
Asolepius said:
What has taken King so long? We really needed him to say this years ago.
Click to expand...


But would it have done any good? If this letter in today's Guardian from the SoH is anything to go by, the press doesn't seem to have a problem with continually publishing misinformation from the proponents of homeopathy:

We were baffled to read the claims of David King that "there is not one jot of evidence" supporting homeopathy, when there are five meta-analysis studies which show that homeopathy works over and above that of placebo, as well as a large outcome study of 6,500 patients treated at Bristol homeopathic hospital, and many other surveys and reports which show positive results for homeopathy.

Many patients who choose homeopathic treatment arrive at the consultation with a medical diagnosis. It is often the case that patients have exhausted what conventional medicine can offer before deciding to try homeopathy, or conventional drugs are contraindicated, or they are finding the side effects of medication unacceptable.

Homeopathic treatment is patient-centred and not disease-specific - homeopaths treat each patient as a unique individual and prescribe according to the totality of their symptoms. The society's members have been trained to the highest standards and agree to work to a strict code of ethics and practice.

While it is true that the mechanism of action of homeopathic remedies has yet to be proven, the fact remains that it does work. There are many things that science cannot yet explain, but closing our minds to the possibilities will surely do nothing more than halt progress.

Jayne Thomas
Vice-chair, Society of Homeopaths

http://www.guardian.co.uk/gmdebate/Story/0,,2224940,00.html
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
The Society of Homeopaths continues to be unrepentant. It is now about to encourage all homeopaths to ask their patients to sign the ‘Homeopathy Works For Me’ campaign declaration:

The Society of Homeopaths have issued a statement of support for the Homeopathy Works For Me Campaign, which is soon to appear on our website and on First Class Mail (The Society of Homeopaths intranet system) in which they urge all homeopaths to contact their patients for the purposes of signing our declaration. They have also agreed to contact all members, individually, on our behalf, in order to encourage them further.

This is a great step forward in our campaign. And we look forward to The Faculty of Homeopaths/BHA and Nelson’s Homeopathic Pharmacy coming to the realisation soon that H:MC21 poses no threat to them and is creating positive public relations for the whole of our profession. When and if this happens, their pro-active support will be enormously helpful to the success of this campaign and will be gratefully received by our board of trustees.


http://www.hmc21.org/phdi/p1.nsf/supppages/2555?opendocument&part=8
Click to expand...


However, with less than 5,000 signatures so far, the success of the campaign looks to be in jeopardy unless they can think up more creative ways to reach their target of 250,000 signatures by June 2008.

Meanwhile, a Glasgow NHS Homeopathic Hospital doctor writes…
http://heroesnotzombies.wordpress.com/homeopathy/
 
Last edited:
Blue Wode said:
A small update.

The homeopaths who operate the H:MC21 homeopathy website http://www.hmc21.org/ have just produced an off-shoot website called ‘Homeopathy Worked For Me’. It has several sections including one which attempts to dispel “myths” about homeopathy (it even references Dana Ullman a couple of times)...

http://www.homeopathyworkedforme.org/
Click to expand...

Yes, they said they were doing this so it's no surprise. Actually I am enormously gratified to see how deeply we are hurting them. It's very funny that they can't imagine that this can be done without big business behind us. They can't believe that a few people with truth on their side can prevail so effectively. The `It Worked for Me' thing does no more than to show how little they understand about evidence - especially when you read what they say about clinical trials.

It would be huge fun to copy and paste this lot to a new website and insert answers to all their `myths'. It would also be extremely easy. But they will probably try to sue us for copyright.
 
Regarding the copyright issue - I would have thought that even on a UK server based website you could get away with quoting a snippet and linking to the complete article if you are doing it to make valid criticism. (It would be covered by "fair dealing".)

Obviously the above should not be considered legal advice!
 
Just how many red herrings, straw men and non sequiturs can be crammed into one paragraph?
http://www.homeopathyworkedforme.org/myths/4526687811
In fact, the only really new argument (that homeopathy is proved innefective[sic] during scientific trials) is fundamentally flawed. In the 1950s the dramatic failure of the methods of testing drugs (such as Thalidomide) led to the proposal that double blind randomised control trials (DBRCTs) should be used. These trials were proposed because the large number of unknown factors affecting such tests made it impossible to assess accurately the effects of a new medicine. Since then these factors have remained unknown, and drugs have still been withdrawn after being adopted on the basis of DBRCT results (such as Vioxx). In other words, there has been no significant development in medical science capable of showing homeopathy to be nonsense, as is claimed by it's opponents.
Click to expand...
I kind of lost heart after that one...
 
Last edited:
"It is all mumbo jumbo, and modern science has shown it to be nonsense"

This myth is rarely stated as baldly as this, perhaps because it is so easy to disprove.
Click to expand...

OK. How about, "It is all mumbo jumbo, and logic shows it to be foolish nonsense"?

Keep up the good work.
 
Perhaps we should promote this website more widely. It's*obvious stupidity must surely work against it for anyone with modicum of scientific knowledge or common sense?

Linda

*for Rolfe
 
fls said:
Perhaps we should promote this website more widely. It's*obvious stupidity must surely work against it for anyone with modicum of scientific knowledge or common sense?

Linda

*for Rolfe
Click to expand...

How long have you been reading Randi's column!?

Never underestimate the suggestibility of the general public, especially when the suggestions are coming from an "authority" on a subject.
 
Blue Wode said:
A small update.

The homeopaths who operate the H:MC21 homeopathy website http://www.hmc21.org/ have just produced an off-shoot website called ‘Homeopathy Worked For Me’. It has several sections including one which attempts to dispel “myths” about homeopathy (it even references Dana Ullman a couple of times)...

http://www.homeopathyworkedforme.org/
Click to expand...


So many words in the link, so few facts.

Send only people there who know the difference between fact and fiction.
 
Last edited:
Mojo said:
Bang away all you like - it actually demagnetises iron.
Click to expand...

That depends on where you get your scientific education from. In the film "The Spaceman and King Arthur", the spaceman magnetizes a sword by aligning it North-South and hitting it.

If it was on TV it must be true!
 
Ivor the Engineer said:
That depends on where you get your scientific education from. In the film "The Spaceman and King Arthur", the spaceman magnetizes a sword by aligning it North-South and hitting it.

If it was on TV it must be true!
Click to expand...

Don't anyone DARE tell me ANYTHING in The Spaceman and King Arthur isn't perfectly possible.
(Although I didn't so much see the actual film as read the Disney comic version. But I believe little technical information was lost...)
 
Further crisis:

NHS trusts 'reject homoeopathy'
NHS primary care trusts are slashing funding for homeopathic treatment amid debate about its efficacy and the drive to cuts costs, a study has suggested.

More than a quarter have stopped or cut funding for such services, research by the GP magazine Pulse has found.

The Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital, the country's largest, confirms it has lost eight contracts in a year and referrals are down by 20%.
Click to expand...

See also here: Homeopathy victim of PCT funding cuts
Homeopathic clinics in the UK are in crisis. Tunbridge Wells Homoeopathic Hospital in Kent has announced it will close and the Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital is fighting for survival after eight trusts cancelled contracts over the past year, and a further six reduced referrals. Referrals to the hospital are down 20% in a year.

Professor Edzard Ernst, professor of complementary medicine at Peninsula Medical School, Exeter, and a former homeopath himself, said he supported moves to withdraw funding for homeopathy as it was nothing more than a placebo. ‘There can be no cost-effectiveness without effectiveness,’ he warned.
Click to expand...

And here: Does homeopathy have any place in general practice?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

ISF - Join now!

Every member here is approved by hand. No bots, no spam, just people who care about evidence and honest debate.

Membership is free!

Create your free account

Back
Top Bottom