NHS will continue to fund Homeopathy

It has been by the Department of Health that homeopathy will remain open for patients on the NHS. This is despite a highly controversial report published in February 2010 by the Science and Technology Committee of the House of Commons (and signed by just 3 members), arguing that funding of homeopathy on the NHS was a waste of money and should therefore be stopped.

There are over 400 GP’s within the UK who practice homeopathy and treat around 200,000 patients per year. In total, the funding for homeopathy within the NHS is annually around £4 million out of a total NHS budget of £120 billion. There are just four NHS homeopathic hospitals offering some homeopathy provision, and they are based in London, Bristol, Glasgow and Manchester.

Anne Milton, then a health minister, said of the situation 

'we believe in patients being able to make informed choices about their treatment and in a clinician being able to prescribe the treatment they feel most appropriate in particular circumstances, which includes complementary or alternative treatments such as homeopathy'.

This decision has been welcomed by homeopathic practitioners and regular users of homeopathy. The sense of importance regarding this announcement was summed up by Dr Sara Eames, the President of the Faculty of Homeopathy, who said 

'As a doctor who practices homeopathy on the NHS, I know homeopathy is an important part of our health service helping tens of thousands of patients annually, a majority of whom have not been helped sufficiently with conventional treatments. I am pleased to see the government, contrary to the recommendations of the Science and Technology’s report, agrees that homeopathy has a place in the NHS and offers choice to both patients and local purchasers of healthcare.'

www.naturalnews.com/029419_homeopathic_medicine_evidence.html

This article was first published by the ARH in the September 2010 issue of 'Homeopathy Healthy Medicine'. 

The ARH regularly publish these newsletters to provide information about homeopathy to the public that is not usually available through our mainstream media. ARH makes them available to everyone as free downloads (go towww.a-r-h.org), and they can be used for information, marketing and publicity purposes.

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