Homeopathic remedies trashed as waste of NHS money
POSTED May 17, 2010 - 13:03 | POSTED BY Neharika Sabharwal
Last edited by Harpreet Bhagrath on May 17, 2010 - 13:37
The BMA called for a ban on homeopathy, urging the United Kingdom's National Health Service (NHS) not to pay for people opting for the alternate medicine.
According to them, taxpayer money should not be wasted on ineffective remedies that have no scientific backing until there is concrete evidence to support that homeopathic products actually work.
Dr Tom Dolphin, deputy chairman of the BMA's junior doctors committee in England stated, "Homeopathy is witchcraft. It is a disgrace that nestling between the National Hospital for Neurology and Great Ormond Street [in London] there is a National Hospital for Homeopathy which is paid for by the NHS".
Strong opposition from junior doctors
Junior doctors called for an end to all establishments that teach homeopathic principles.
They felt it was a futile practice for them to spend a part of their training process in homeopathic hospitals, learning principles that are unscientific.
Gordon Lehany, chairman of the BMA’s junior doctors committee in Scotland declared, “At a time, when the NHS is struggling for cash, we should be focusing on treatments that have proven benefit. If people wish to pay for homeopathy that’s their choice, but it shouldn’t be paid for on the NHS until there is evidence that it works.”
Homeopathy, a popular alternate medicine
Despite the uproar against homeopathy, it enjoys a unique place in the health marketplace.
According to homeopaths, the medicine provides treatment that is safer, gentler, "natural," and less expensive than conventional care.
The latest records reveal that 54,000 patients are treated annually at four NHS homeopathic hospitals in Glasgow, London, Bristol and Liverpool, at an estimated cost of £4 million.
A fifth hospital in Tunbridge Wells in Kent faced closure last year when local NHS funders stopped paying for treatments.
Crystal Sumner, chief executive of the British Homeopathic Association (BHA) stated, “Thousands of people, who are not helped by conventional care, rely on homeopathy in the UK annually, and millions worldwide.
“That this group of junior doctors is willing to vilify something they haven’t even broached to understand, I think speaks more about the doctors themselves.
“It says more about them living in some kind of dark ages. Homeopathy is not witchcraft it has been around for 200 years. Millions of people depend on it as their first level of medication, because they don’t have conventional medicines available.”
The sentiments were echoed by Dr Mukesh Batra of Dr Batra's Positive Health Clinic, owner of a newly opened clinic on Harley Street in London.
He said, "Homeopathy has been around for 150 years and is recognized in 80 countries. A homoeopath needs to obtain a five-year degree so they're not all quacks. This criticism really stems from an irrational fear of something they have never experimented with, or benefited from."
