NHS doctors ‘undermining’ ban on homoeopathy

GPs who believe in alternative therapies are still prescribing treatments in two regions of England

THE battle to abolish taxpayer-funded homoeopathy is being undermined by GPs and other NHS doctors who believe the alternative therapies work, campaigners have warned.

The health service has announced a ban on commissioning the treatments, yet in London and the South West family doctors continue to prescribe them, and some NHS hospitals deliver them, costing up to £6 million a year.

Resistance to official policy is being bolstered by a network of doctors who support homoeopathy within the NHS, as well as an attachment to homoeopathy among many patients, according to the Good Thinking Society.

They are hoping a public consultation in Bristol, which closes on Tues- day, about the funding of alternative therapies will mark the beginning of the end of homoeopathic treatments in the NHS. There are just two significant areas of the country where the NHS funds the practice.

Opponents of what many describe as a pseudoscience believe the results of the consultation concerning Bristol and parts of Somerset and Gloucestershire will herald its abolition in the South West, but they predict stamping it out in the capital will be harder.

While obtaining a referral for ho- moeopathic treatment, such as for conditions like chronic fatigue syndrome or allergies, is difficult and decided on a case-by-case basis, some hospital doctors are allegedly providing taxpayerfunded treatments even when these have not been commissioned by GPs.

Michael Marshall, project director at the Good Thinking Society, said audits had shown the Royal Hospital of Integrated Medicine, an NHS facility in Great Ormond Street, was routinely using money from local GP groups on homoeopathic remedies. “There is no good evidence that homoeopathy works,” he said. “The NHS should not be funding treatments which have been proven not to work as every penny that is spent could be better spent elsewhere.”

Last month Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, described homoeopathy as a “placebo at best”, and a “misuse” of scarce NHS funds.

A second consultation is taking place in London, led by Enfield CCG, to gain support for abandoning all funding for homoeopathy. However, it is expected that both the London and Bristol engagement exercises will prompt “disproportionately strong” support from patients in favour of alternative treatments.

“We know that homoeopathy supporters in the area are very active and we are certain they will be responding to the survey to urge the CCGs to keep funding homoeopathy,” Mr Marshall added.

At the time of publication the Royal Hospital of Integrated Medicine had not responded.