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A group of leading scientists led by Professor Gustav Born of King’s College London are stepping up their campaign to get the UK’s National Health Service to stop funding homoeopathy.
A year after they first wrote about the lack of evidence for homoeopathy, data obtained by the scientists and the Times newspaper show that more than half of England’s 150 primary care trusts are not providing funding, are planning to withdraw funding or are restricting funding.
Professor Born was pleased with progress made but said: “There are still trusts that continue to use these unproven remedies through clinics and prescriptions. While it may be tempting to dismiss homoeopathy expenditure as relatively small across the NHS, we must consider the cultural and social damage of maintaining as a matter of principle expenditure on practices which are unsupported by evidence.”
The Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital has already reported that trusts have “stopped or drastically reduced” funding. Its clinical director said it presented a serious threat to the future of the hospital and urged the NHS to resist the attempts of scientists to discourage it from funding patients for homoeopathic treatment. He added: “I think there is a lot of evidence it works when it is integrated within the NHS.”
National Electronic Library for Medicines 24/5/2007
