INMYVIEW... WESHOULDN’TFUNDHOMEOPATHY

AS A GP, there is an obligation to rely on treatments with a firm evidence base behind them: it helps us ensure we use the treatments that are proven to work.

But many doctors have within their proverbial medicine bag softer remedies, such as aromatherapy. The practitioners and their clients are convinced these remedies work and have come to rely on them — yet their effectiveness is proven only by anecdote.

The big one is homeopathy, with at least 400 GPs prescribing homeopathic treatment, even though there has never been any evidence to confirm that homeopathic remedies are any more effective than placebos. Homeopathy is based upon the conviction that ‘like cures like’. So they use substances derived from plants, animals or minerals, that can produce symptoms similar to those from which the patient suffers.

The substance is put through multiple dilutions combined with succussions (shakings) which are believed to render it increasingly powerful — even though the dilution is so great that there may not be a single molecule of the active substance still present in doses of the treatment.

Following NHS guidelines last December ordering doctors to cease prescribing homeopathy on the NHS, the British Homeopathic Association went to court to argue that the treatments can produce ‘amazing outcomes’, but a judge has now dismissed this claim.

Many will be disappointed at the rejection of their strongly held beliefs, but we now live in a world of objective science and strictly controlled decision-making in medicine.

With ever-increasing costs of healthcare outstripping resources, and with the continuing commitment to free healthcare at the point of delivery, the intentions of politicians, doctors and the public must be ever more stringent in seeking value for money in treatment. And if that means no more homeopathy on prescription, then so be it.