A group of leading physicians and scientists in the UK has petitioned the National Health Service, because it is concerned about how unproven or disproved treatments are being encouraged within the system. In a letter reproduced in The Times, they ask that practices be reviewed and that the various concerns about such treatments, which generally sit under the umbrella of complementary or alternative medicine, be raised with the governmental Department of Health.
The bottom line, in other words, is that the authors of the letter, “want patients to benefit from the best treatments available” and don’t think NHS money should wasted on including the likes of highly implausible treatments such as homeopathy on the treatment roster.
The authors express the opinion that, “We are sensitive to the needs of patients for complementary care to enhance well-being and for spiritual support to deal with the fear of death at a time of critical illness, all of which can be supported through services already available within the NHS without resorting to false claims.”
Homeopathy is certainly one of the most inflammatory of the CAM therapies. From the scientific standpoint there is absolutely no serious explanation as to how it might work in terms of the chemical components of the treatments. On the other hand, Toby Murcott’s excellent book on the subject of alternative medicine (reviewed briefly here) emphasises that science is yet to explain fully the placebo effect, or more intriguingly the anticipatory effect of treatments wherein the thought of being healed can have some benefit for many patients even before they are given the therapy.
Modern medicine has “eradicated” so many of the old diseases, that countless health centres and organisations across the globe now must heavily promote their various panaceas as the diseases of longevity begin to stack up for which there are no cures as quick and easy as a course of tablets.
As we live longer, so we expect to live healthily for longer. With that in mind it is inevitable that people will turn to CAM to help give achieve this. However, in this letter, Professor Michael Baum and colleagues essentially point out that the hopes of many patients are being pandered to through the irresponsible embracing of alternative therapies for which there is no evidence of efficacy.