Queen's doctor warns of homoeopathy crisis - 'campaign' to derail alternative therapies on the NHS

[Sheri Nakken]

http://news.independent.co.uk/health/article2919644.ece
2 September 2007 17:05
Queen's doctor warns of homoeopathy crisis
A leaked memo reveals that there is 'a co-ordinated campaign' to derail
alternative therapies on the NHS
By Nina Lakhani
Published: 02 September 2007

The Queen's personal physician and Britain's leading homoeopath yesterday
warned of a "co-ordinated campaign to derail complementary therapies in the
NHS".

A leaked memo seen by The Independent on Sunday identifies several
influential groups working together for the removal of homoeopathy from the
NHS.

According to Dr Peter Fisher, clinical director of the Royal London
Homoeopathic Hospital, there has been a 20 per cent reduction in referrals
to the hospital in the past year, as new patients are refused funding by a
growing number of primary care trusts.

The hospital – an NHS centre of excellence – could be forced drastically to
cut services if other PCTs introduce the same system and if funding for
patients currently undergoing treatment is withdrawn.

Dr Fisher, whose patients include the supermodel Claudia Schiffer, pointed
to the fact that some six million people in the UK use complementary
therapies each year. Advocates include David Beckham and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

Dr Fisher said: "There are some patients with conditions that prescription
drugs alone do not help. There is a huge potential to help these patients
and those who experience adverse side-effects from conventional medicines
with complementary therapies."

The four NHS homoeopathic hospitals combine therapies to treat chronic
conditions, such as depression, irritable bowel syndrome and osteoarthritis
that conventional medicines alone can fail. But this relatively new
integrated approach offends the beliefs and aims of certain groups.

"The campaign dates back two years starting with several eminent and mostly
retired scientists and doctors who have a way of seeing the world and
medicine which complementary therapies do not sit within," Dr Fisher said.
"The pharmaceutical industry is worried for its future, as public opinion
is shifting towards complementary therapies."

The memo, sent out by the president of the Association of the Directors of
Public Health, Dr Tim Crayford, referred only to homoeopathy, but all
complementary therapies are affected. Dr Crayford said: "The email... was
certainly not about all complementary therapies. This paper was written to
help PCTs focus on the delivery of essential services."

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Sheri Nakken, R.N., MA, Hahnemannian Homeopath
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