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Poll: should the NHS stop funding homeopathy?

This poll is over 6 years old
 

​Humanists call for NHS spending on alternative remedy to be stopped

Should homeopathy be provided by the NHS?

Yes
33
No
64

Calls have been made for the NHS in Scotland to stop funding homeopathy.

Currently, six of the country’s 14 health boards provide the controversial alternative therapy, to the tune of £1.7 million a year.

Opponents of homeopathy, in which solutions containing no active ingredients are given to patients, label it as a pseudo-science, pointing to overwhelming evidence that it has absolutely no effect, other than perhaps as a placebo.

However, its proponents say it has been shown to improve patient outcomes.

The Humanist Society Scotland has written to the Scottish Government, demanding an end to homeopathy funding.

What do you think? Should homeopathy be provided by the NHS?

Vote now and contribute to the debate by leaving a comment below.

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Voting in this poll has now closed
 

Comments

0 0
Christine
over 6 years ago
Clinical experience spanning more than 200 years and hundreds of millions patients show homeopathy to be effective and safe. Conventional treatments create iatrogenic diseases which then require additional treatment. Homeopathy does not. Conventional treatments simply suppress the symptoms of disease allowing it to percolate in the body. Homeopathy does not suppress symptoms and often cures. Conventional treatments are expensive. They are the number one cause of bankruptcy in the U.S. Homeopathy is cost effective and can save the NHS a great deal of money.Funding decisions should be based on cost benefit studies conducted by independent third parties not on the opinions of people who have never used or studied homeopathy.
0 0
Fiona French
over 6 years ago
I have no particular knowledge of the proven benefits of homeopathic medicine. What I do have extensive knowledge of is the immense amount of harm caused by prescription drugs of dependence such as benzodiazepines and antidepressants. There is considerable evidence of the harms to patients from these drugs. Antidepressants are now prescribed to around 20% of the adult population. I would suggest that the NHS could look to save considerable amounts of money not so much from reduced prescribing but from reducing the burden of ill-health from drugs of dependence. If interested check out our recent petition to the Scottish Parliament on "prescribed drug dependence". The sole beneficiary to the mass prescribing of these drugs is the pharmaceutical industry.
0 0
Alan Henness
over 6 years ago
@Fiona FrenchThere might be an interesting discussion to be had about that, but this article is about homeopathy.
Commenting is now closed on this post