NHS chief slams homeopathic remedies

HEALTH chiefs have attacked the homeopathy industry for allegedly pedalling deadly anti-vaccine myths.

Practitioners have been accused of spreading toxic ‘misinformation’ about jabs, which poses ‘a significant danger to human health’.

In a key intervention, NHS boss Simon Stevens today urges the medical watchdog to de-list the Society of Homeopaths from the official register of professional organisations. He claims that the body’s inclusion sends a message that homeopathic remedies are as safe and effective as clinically tested medicines.

Scotland’s British Medical Association chairman has also reiterated that homeopathy should be banned within the NHS.

In a further scathing rebuke, Mr Stevens describes some homeopaths as ‘chancers’ who are conning the public. He also warns that some therapists are pushing ineffective ‘homeopathic vaccines’. But the Society of Homeopaths – the UK’s largest group of registered practitioners – insists they do not promote treatments contrary to NHS guidance.

BMA Scotland chairman Dr Lewis Morrison said: ‘The BMA has a policy that, in the absence of valid scientific evidence of benefits for patients, there should be no further commissioning of, nor funding for, homeopathic remedies in the NHS.’

Homeopathy involves using highly diluted substances, such as plants or animal tissue, to encourage the body to heal itself. Prince Charles is a supporter and is patron of the Faculty of Homeopathy.

But NHS inform, Scotland’s health information website, describes homeopathy as ‘scientifically implausible’.

The Scottish Daily Mail told earlier this year how patients were prescribed nearly £50,000 of homeopathic drugs that have been banned by NHS England because they do not work.