Yet Another Nail in the Homeopathic Coffin?
Question by Gary Y: Yet another nail in the homeopathic coffin?
From news.scotsman.com:
NHS funding cut for homeopathy because it has ‘no clinical benefit’
Published Date: 06 October 2010
By JOHN ROSS
A HEALTH board has become the first in Scotland to begin phasing out homeopathic treatments on the NHS, after deciding they provide no clinical benefit.
NHS Highland spends a minimum of £13,000 a year on referrals to two homeopathic practitioners in Inverness. But it decided yesterday to withdraw support for the alternative therapy, which has come under fire recently by doctors and a cross-party group of MPs.
In February the Commons science and technology committee said the NHS should stop funding homeopathy, which it said acted only as a placebo. In June the British Medical Association also urged the Scottish NHS to withdraw the £1.5 million spent each year on homeopathic treatments.
NHS Highland has decided to set up a clinical board to ensure services it provides are evidence-based and cost-effective. It agreed to phase out funding to some non-drug treatments, including those where there was “no evidence of clinical benefit, such as homeopathy”.
Margaret Somerville, the board’s director of health policy, said patients offered an ineffective treatment might delay getting the most appropriate help for their condition, with possible serious consequences.
“I’m very clear there is a good evidence base out there (about homeopathy]. It’s been looked at very closely by people a lot more expert than me and they are happy there is no clinical benefit to be had from homeopathy.”…
http://news.scotsman.com/news/NHS-funding-cut-for-homeopathy.6567228.jp
NHS Highland’s intention to set up a board to ensure that its services are evidence based sounds like a step in the right direction, and should be major blow to quacks.
So when will the rest of the UK catch up?
@deif, you’re a glowing example of an altie, aren’t you? I was hoping for some slightly more intelligent answers from your crowd.
@thomas, its a copy/paste, I didn’t write it. Do you have anything better to offer than criticizing the punctuation and name calling?
Hi Rhianna. No we won’t see any supporting evidence from any of them, thenoseknows included. They never do. Because they can’t. Just look at the quality of their answers. And that itself represents even more nails in the homeopathic coffin.
@brad – you do realize that homeopathy is water or sugar pills – no active ingredients, don’t you? How do you know it worked for you? Did you have a control?
Best answer:
Answer by Rhianna does Medicine Year 1
Hi Gary. Hopefully the rest will follow suit….but I’m not holding my breath for that to happen anytime soon.- And certainly not if Charlie Windsor has anything to do with it.
Homoeopathy is very clearly bunk, it’s ludicrous to spend money on activities that have never worked in any high quality trial and contradict everything we know about science.
Pseudoscience should be left in the 18th century where it belongs.
How is wasting money on something with zero plausibility and efficacy an appropriate use of NHS funding? Frankly, we shouldn’t be endorsing such stupidity.
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Edit: As you can see Gary, when the quacks cannot present evidence to support their position, their only recourse is fallacious arguments.
And thenoseknows STILL knows nothing.
“and it’s still going strong on the NHS anyway. ”
Evidence for this claim please. How many referrals are there per year? Be more specific. Popularity does not demonstrate efficacy. There were only 5 homoeopathic clinics in the UK, the one just down the road from me in Tunbridge-Wells shut awhile back. If it’s still going strong on the NHS, then please explain why 95% of our hospitals ignore it? In reality, very few GPs offer homoeopathic referrals to such placebo clinics.
French virologist Professor Luc Montagnier did no such thing. His “study” is not evidence that homoeopathy works or that water has memory. Harriet Hall gives a very thorough trashing of his “study” here: http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=2081
“Until Montagnier’s research, the bulk of mainstream doctors and scientist had maintained that there was no scientific way that multiple dilutions used in homoeopathy could possibly work.”
And that is STILL the case, because water does not have memory and it’s never been demonstrated to. You can’t diluted a preparation to the point that there isn’t a single molecule of the chemical in the final preparation and expect it to have any biological effect.
Also avoid the appeal to authority and popularity in your posts please.
The alties lie.
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