NCH writes letter in support of London Homoeopathic Hospital.

Alexandria, VA
03/23/2007

The NCH recently received the following message from Dr. Peter Peter Fisher, Royal Physician to the Queen of England (and speaker at our 2006 Joint Conference).

THE ROYAL LONDON HOMOEOPATHIC HOSPITAL

The Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital (RLHH) is the flagship of homoeopathy in the UK. Founded in 1849 by Dr Frederick Quin, (who studied with Hahnemann in Paris), it has been on its present site in central London, about 300 yards from the British Museum, since 1859. It is in the heart of medical London, with the UK’s leading pediatric and neurological hospitals on either side. It is part of University College London Hospitals, one the leading academic medical centres in the UK. The RLHH has recently been completely redeveloped to create a state of the art facility, and was reopened by the Prince of Wales in October 2005. RLHH offers a range of complementary therapies, including acupuncture, Iscador and nutritional therapy, as well as homoeopathy.

RLHH is currently facing a serious crisis due to cuts in funding by the Public Sector Health Agencies which purchase its services. These funding cuts mean that many patients are no longer able to receive homeopathy and the other complementary therapies provided by the RLHH within the public sector, or face great bureaucratic obstacles in doing so. If this trend continues, the very survival of the RLHH is threatened.

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The NCH sent the following letter of support to RLHH and Dr. Fisher:

March 23, 2007

Dr. Peter Fisher, Clinical Director
Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital
Great Ormond Street
London WC1N 3HR, UK

Dear Dr. Fisher,

It has been brought to our attention that the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital (RLHH) is facing challenges that threaten its future. On behalf of the National Center for Homeopathy, the largest homeopathic organization in the United States representing practitioners and consumers, I want to state our strong support for the important work done on behalf of the sick at RLHH.

What concerns us most is the concerted campaign of false information being waged by the economic competitors to homeopathy. This system of medicine has been used by competent medical practitioners for over 200 years with good effect for patients. From the system’s spectacular success against epidemics of cholera, diphtheria, scarlet fever, pandemic flu, yellow fever and other deadly outbreaks – to its promise in the treatment of intractable chronic disease – clearly there is an important place for homeopathy in our collective healthcare systems. In fact, with the sale of homeopathic remedies climbing at a rate of 40% per year and increasing demand from patients to see practitioners trained in this modality – it is obvious health consumers are seeing good treatment outcomes.

Finally, one of the most recent studies to show homeopathy’s efficacy (D. S. Spence et al. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 11, 793–798; 2005) has been vigorously attacked by the same forces that seek to close RLHH. Within mainstream medicine, there are strong arguments for the value of properly controlled observational trials. Interestingly, if homeopathy were seen as unhelpful or harmful in these observational studies, the critics would be right there to use those data to support their conclusions. If the Primary Care Trusts serving RLHH intend to be truly rigorous and balanced in their consideration of the issues, then they must examine the entire body of basic science, animal, pre-clinical and clinical literature on homeopathy, which does not support the conclusion that homeopathy is just a placebo. In the most recent study referenced above, the evidence shows that homeopathy is either better than or at least not inferior to conventional care (a conservative conclusion that is a type of design appropriate to a complex intervention) and that it may have better safety.

The National Center for Homeopathy stands ready to support RLHH in any way we can. Please feel free to distribute this letter as widely as possible and let us know what other actions we can take.

Sincerely,

Jean Hoagland, President
National Center for Homeopathy