MPs label homeopathy ineffective and want end to NHS funding

The NHS should stop funding homeopathy because there is no scientific proof that it works, MPs said yesterday.

The Commons Science and Technology Committee said the diluted products were no more effective than placebo – the same as taking a sugar or dummy pill.

Furthermore, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency should not allow labels on homeopathic medicines to carry medical claims, it said.

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Dr Michael Dixon, medical director for the Prince's Foundation for Integrated Health, said the patient had been left out of the MPs' report.

"We should not abandon patients we cannot help with conventional scientific medicine.

"If homeopathy is getting results for those patients, then of course we should continue to use it."

Homeopathy, which is a 200-year-old system, has been funded on the NHS since its inception in 1948.

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There are four homeopathic hospitals in the UK in London, Bristol, Liverpool and Glasgow.

Estimates on how much the NHS spends on homeopathy vary, with the Society of Homeopaths putting the figure at 4m a year. Health Minister Mike O'Brien told the committee spending on homeopathic medicines was 152,000 a year.

The committee said the idea behind homeopathy – of diluting substances to the extent that a solution retains an "imprint" of what was originally dissolved – was implausible.

The committee challenged the view that research funding should be directed towards further study of homeopathy.

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Liberal Democrat Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Phil Willis, who is chairman of the cross-party committee, said prescribing homeopathy as placebos on the NHS amounted to encouraging doctors to participate in "active deception" of their patients.

He said serious illnesses could be missed while people were on homeopathy. The potions were "basically sugar pills or Smarties" and patients could be mislead into thinking they were getting better on them, he added.

Robert Wilson, chairman of the firm Nelsons, which makes natural healthcare products, was disappointed that the committee had not taken on board the substantial evidence demonstrating the efficacy of homeopathic medicines.

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