Doctors and why waste money

[Guest guest]

on alternative medicine?

 

Keep complementary medicine out of NHS, say leading

doctors

Tuesday May 23, 2006

Some of the UK's most eminent doctors have mounted a

direct challenge to the integration of complementary

medicine into the NHS, on the day that Prince Charles

urges the World Health Assembly in Geneva to back the

cause of alternative and complementary medicines

alongside scientifically-proven treatments. Thirteen

senior doctors have written to every hospital and

primary care trust in the UK urging them not to

suggest anything but evidence-based medicine to their

patients.

There has been growing concern among some in medical

and scientific circles about the increasing referral

by GPs to complementary medicine practitioners. Some

GPs use therapies such as acupuncture and homeopathy

on their patients; others are increasingly willing to

send them to complementary therapists in cases where

they cannot themselves provide treatment.

Signatories to the letter include Sir James Black, who

won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1988, Sir Keith

Peters, president of the Academy of Medical Science,

and, according to the Times, six fellows of the Royal

Society. Yesterday a spokesman for the Royal Society

said that it had not organised the letter, but

acknowledged that the society took a sceptical view.

" As far as the society is concerned, it has always

said that alternative medicine needs to be assessed on

the same sort of criteria as conventional medicine -

but we have not expressed a view about its role within

the NHS, " said Bob Ward.

The letter was organised by Michael Baum, a cancer

specialist who is emeritus professor of surgery at

University College London. Edzard Ernst, professor of

complementary medicine at Exeter University, is

another signatory.

The doctors urge primary care trusts not to spend

money on unproven therapies at a time when the NHS is

short of cash. It criticises two recent initiatives of

the Prince's Foundation for Integrated Medicine - a

patient guide to complementary medicine, for which it

was given government funds - and last year's Smallwood

report, which purported to find that complementary

medicine on the NHS was cost-effective.