So, the government are going to carry on funding homeopathy on the NHS? I wonder which of the coalition partners thought of that? Was it a Tory grandee with shares in a private purveyor of fairy dust to the worried well, or was it a Lib Dem, concerned that there hadn’t been anything like enough woolly-minded tree hugging holistic nonsense peddled by the Dave ‘n’ Nick rainbow alliance since the election?
Either way, it’s crap, isn’t it? I mean, if it’s OK to spend public money on bottled water for the fibromyalgic masses, why not radionics, or traditional Chinese medicine? In fact, I’d rather see it spent on Chinese herbal remedies. It may be bad news for endangered species everywhere, but at least there’d be a few active ingredients in the bottles. Plus, some of it’s pretty toxic, and I don’t imagine many GPs would regret the poisoning of the occasional heartsink patient.
Still, I suppose I shouldn’t get too sniffy about the homeopaths. One of the good things about being a radiologist is that, if you choose the appropriate sub-specialty (and I can recommend nuclear medicine) and then train the radiographers and imaging technicians to do all the stuff like injections, you hardly ever have to come into direct contact with patients. I’ve always thought that they were the biggest obstacle to the enjoyment of medical practice, so it’s nice to be able to keep them at arm’s length.
GPs and homeopaths have to spend hours every day talking to them - must be dreadful. I suppose it’s even worse for the homeopaths, because at least some of the GPs’ patients actually have something wrong with them (there again - so do some of the homeopaths’ patients, it’s just that the ‘holistic’ practitioners haven’t been trained to notice that sort of thing). Actually, I think I may just have talked myself out of my antipathy to homeopathy* on the NHS. If 70% of GP patients just need someone to talk to, it might as well be a homeopath. Better than wasting a doctor’s time.
Well, that was nice. We’ve been on a journey here, readers, and that’s a good thing, because these days, everything seems to be a journey, doesn’t it? There’s the Patient Journey, of course, without repeated mention of which no nursing document is complete, and most ‘celebrities’ seem to be ‘on a journey’, usually to or from The Priory. And you have all just been privileged to witness my journey from doubter to believer concerning homeopathy. A good day’s work all round.
*When I corrected the first draft of this blog, I found I had typed ‘hopeopathy’ instead of ‘homeopathy’ at this point. A term I think I might use more deliberately in future.
Tags: Alternative medicine
Bob, you are becoming a homeophobe !
I am sure that Harriet Harman must have passed a law against it before she moved on!
Bob - you are brilliant. When you retire, I hope you are going to publish your “journey”!
NP.
I’ve just been on a ‘journey’. A very slow one masquerading as a clinical governance meeting. I kepy hearing a small voice saying “are we nearly there yet?”.
Anyway, homeopathy on the NHS is fine by me. It represents a tiny fraction of the therapeutics budget, and if results in a some happy (if unaltered) ‘customers’ what’s the harm?
No harm Mark. It’s just that if making people happy is going to be the criterion for the expenditure of the NHS’s limited budget, why stop at homeopathy? I’d quite like a week’s fishing on the Swale at Topcliffe. Would make me happy, and probably would actually improve my health am little bit (unlike homeopathy). Or lots of people find that cocaine makes them happy, albeit temporarily.
But while people still die for lack of ‘proper’ medical care, I just think we need to prioritise.
And NP - thanks for the kind words. What I really need to publish in my retirement is a blockbusting novel to fund it, but there’s not much sign of it happening.
Presumably prescriptions for homeopathic remedies attract the standard NHS prescription charge.
In these straighted times could be a nice little earner for the NHS (would this be the most expensive bottled water in the world?).
If the profit goes to the capitalist supplers rather than the NHS should we get the Consumer Association involved?