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Alternative medicine ‘unproven and disproved’
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GENEVA and LONDON. Addressing the World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland, on 22 May, Prince Charles urged foreign health ministers to adopt a more holistic approach to tackling health problems.
Prince Charles told the World Health Organisation’s decision-making forum:
“I believe that the proper mix of proven complementary, traditional and modern remedies, which emphasise the active participation of the patient, can help to create a powerful healing force for our world.
“This is where orthodox practice can learn from complementary medicine, the West can learn from the East and new from old traditions.”
But some elements of orthodox medicine are not as keen as the Prince for alternative therapies to be made available – at least, not on the National Health Service (NHS). A day before Prince Charles discussed alternative healing, a letter appeared in “The Times” – the timing was surely no coincidence – from Prof Baum and 12 other scientists, arguing that NHS funding of “unproven and disproved treatments” was unacceptable.
“At a time when the NHS is under intense pressure, patients, the public and the NHS are best served by using the available funds for treatments that are based on solid evidence,” it concluded.
UK television company ITV quoted Prof Baum as saying” “I’m all in favour of treatments that make people better but there is the issue of evidence”, apparently overlooking the rather obvious point that the evidence is provided by people getting better. He went on to say:
“The UCL Hospital Trust has spent £20 million on refurbishing the Royal Homeopathic Hospital. If that sum of money was spent on making available herceptin and aromatese inhibitors, then it could be saving in my own health district 600 lives a year.”
The Society of Homeopaths responded by insisting: “We are certain that homeopathic treatment is safe, cost-effective and a good option for NHS patients.”
And Dr Peter Fisher, clinical director of the Royal Homeopathic Hospital, told the BBC: “I think what this suggestion amounts to is a form of medical apartheid – any therapy which can’t trace its origins to what is called the biochemical model should be excluded from the NHS.”
Prince Charles has been championing alternative therapies for two decades and established the Prince’s Foundation for Integrated Health to encourage the development of complementary medicines and integrated healthcare. The 57-year-old heir to the throne told “Men’s Health” magazine in May: “I’ve been labelled the Potty Prince and all that stuff. There’s been endless ridiculing and rubbishing, endless laughing. But is it so controversial to suggest that we’re made up of mind, body and spirit and not just the body?”
The Queen is also known to favour alternative treatments – particularly homeopathy – and the royal doctor, Dr Timothy Evans, who was appointed early in 2002, offers his patients a range of complementary therapies, including massage, acupuncture, yoga, aromatherapy, osteopathy and homeopathy.
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Posted on Monday, September 04, 2006
Category: Health
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