Prince Defiant over Alternative Medicine After Dr's Attack

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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2193562.html

 

Prince defiant over alternative medicine after doctors' attack

By Jenny Booth and Mark Henderson

 

Doctors have criticised the Prince's initiatives on complementary

medicine,

but he stuck to his guns in a speech today

 

 

The Prince of Wales today issued an impassioned plea for alternative

medicine to be given a bigger place in the mainstream, hours after a

group

of Britain's leading doctors issued their own appeal for the NHS to

to stop

paying for complementary therapies.

 

The Prince addressed the annual meeting of the World Health

Organisation in

Geneva, arguing that an integrated, holistic approach was the best

way of

tackling chronic disease, rather than a " dangerously fragmented "

approach

that relied just on what he called the bio-physical treatment model.

 

While not detracting from modern medicine, which he said had served

humanity

well, he criticised excessive reliance on it for upsetting natural

harmony.

 

" I believe there is now a desperately urgent need to redress the

fragile but

vital balance between man and nature, through a more integrated

approach

where the best of the ancient is blended with the best of the modern,

and I

am convinced this is particularly vital when it comes to the

collective

health of people in all our countries, " he told the WHO delegates

from 192

nations.

 

But in a direct challenge to the Prince's campaign, 13 British

doctors and

scientists issued an open letter to NHS trusts that said public

funding of

" unproven or disproved treatments " such as homoeopathy and

reflexology were

unacceptable while huge deficits are forcing trusts to sack nurses

and limit

access to life-saving drugs.

 

The scientists, who include some of the most eminent names in British

medicine, have written to the chief executives of all 476 acute and

primary

care trusts to demand that only evidence-based therapies are provided

free

to patients.

 

The letter criticises two of the Prince's flagship initiatives on

complementary medicine: a government-funded patient guide prepared by

his

Foundation for Integrated Medicine, and the Smallwood report last

year,

which he commissioned to make a financial case for increasing NHS

provision.

 

Both documents, it is claimed, give misleading information about

scientific

support for therapies such as homoeopathy, described as " an

implausible

treatment for which over a dozen systematic reviews have failed to

produce

convincing evidence of effectiveness " .

 

The letter was organised by Michael Baum, Emeritus Professor of

Surgery at

University College London, and other supporters include six Fellows

of the

Royal Society, Britain's national academy of science, and Professor

Edzard

Ernst, of the Peninsula Medical School in Exeter, who holds the UK's

first

chair in complementary medicine.

 

The signatories include Sir James Black, who won the Nobel Prize for

Medicine in 1988, and Sir Keith Peters, president of the Academy of

Medical

Science, which represents Britain's leading clinical researchers.

 

The Prince did not fuel the row by referring to the letter in his

speech to

the WHO this afternoon. He did however stick to his guns, saying that

increasing numbers of alternative therapies - including acupuncture

for

osteo-arthritis of the knee, the use of St John's Wort for mild

depression -

were being shown in clinical trials to have therapeutic effects.

 

And he singled out his Foundation for Integrated Medicine for praise,

saying

that for the last 11 years it had been the leading champion of the

integrated approach to health treatment. This involved harnessing both

modern and traditional therapies, looking at social and environmental

influences, and empowering the patient by involving him in his own

treatment, he said.

 

" I say that a mix of modern and traditional remedies that emphasises

the

participation of the patient can create a powerful healing force, "

said the

Prince.

 

" It seems to be that in our ceaseless rush to modernise, many tried

and

tested methods which have shown themselves to be effective have been

cast

aside as old-fashioned or irrelevant to today's needs. "

 

Professor Baum, a cancer specialist, said that he had organised the

letter

because of his " utter despair " at growing NHS acceptance of

alternative

treatments while drugs of proven effectiveness are being withheld.

 

" At a time when we are struggling to gain access for our patients to

Herceptin, which is absolutely proven to extend survival in breast

cancer, I

find it appalling that the NHS should be funding a therapy like

homoeopathy

that is utterly bogus, " he said.

 

He said that he was happy for the NHS to offer the treatments once

research

has proven them effective, such as acupuncture for pain relief, but

that

very few had reached the required standards. " If people want to spend

their

own money on it, fine, but it shouldn't be NHS money. "

 

The Department of Health does not keep figures on the total NHS

spending on

alternative medicine, but Britain's total market is estimated at £1.6

billion.

 

The doctors' dismissal of homeopathy has drawn a heated response from

practitioners who say anecdotal evidence from thousands of relieved

patients

cannot be ignored.

 

Professor George Lewith, from the Centre for Complementary and

Integrated

Medicine, said: " People are happy to pay for complementary medicines

because

it makes them feel better, even though they are only 10 per cent more

effective than placebo. Maybe the 13 doctors have forgotten that the

conventional treatments for asthma, depression and irritable bowel

are also

only about 10 per cent better than placebo. "

 

But Dr Peter Canter, a research fellow in complementary medicine at

the

Peninsula Medical School in Exeter, called for more trialling of

therapies,

and warned that some treatments, including homeopathy, had already

been

proved ineffective over years of testing. He suggested that patients

ignore

the anecdotes and look for " sound scientific evidence " for and against

treatments.

 

He said: " It's all very well reading anecdotes from 10 happy

homeopathy

patients. You don't hear from the 100 others who received absolutely

no

benefit. "

 

Britons currently spend £130 million a year on complementary

treatments,

such as acupuncture, herbalism and reflexology.