British Department of Health Recommends National Health Service Continue to Offer Homeopathy

“...The National Health Service's funding of homeopathic treatments despite a lack of clinical evidence that they work has been a perennial hot-button issue in England, one that has gotten hotter lately as the government seeks to shrink the health care budget by about £20 billion, or nearly a fifth....

“The flare-up over homeopathy began in February, when a scientific committee of parliament submitted a scathing report to the Department of Health, calling the treatments placebos and demanding that NHS funding no longer be extended to them. The British Medical Association afterward joined the fray, adopting the official position that homeopathy lacks any scientific evidence base and should not receive public funds; homeopathic treatments are estimated by opponents and proponents alike to cost the NHS £4 million a year.

“This week the Department of Health responded formally to the parliamentary report - saying, officially, that while it agreed with many of the committee's assertions, including the fact that there is virtually no clinical evidence in favor of homeopathy, the treatments should continue to be offered as a matter of patient choice. However, it also said, the lack of viable evidence for the treatments should be communicated to the public....”

To view the full Department of Health Report go to
 
http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_117810