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Ask your MP to sign EDM 908

26 February 2010

Early Day Motion: The House of Commons Science & Technology Committee's Evidence Check: Homeopathy

Please write to your MP and ask him or her to sign Early Day Motion (EDM) 908, which expresses concern at the conclusions of the Science & Technology Committee's Report; notes that the Committee only took oral evidence from a limited number of witnesses; regrets that the Committee ignored the randomised controlled trials that have shown homeopathic treatments to be more effective than placebo; and calls on the government to maintain its policy of allowing decision-making on individual clinical interventions, including homeopathy, to remain in the hands of local NHS service providers and practitioners who are best placed to know their community's needs.

The EDM has been tabled following the recent publication of the House of Commons Science & Technology Committee's Evidence Check: Homeopathy.

The British Homeopathic Association and the Faculty of Homeopathy dismiss the recommendations of the Science and Technology report.

The two organisations noted that the majority of patients presenting at the NHS homeopathic hospitals have serious and chronic conditions that have often not been helped through conventional methods. These patients are not - as the committee would like to purport - presenting minor complaints whose improvement is easily explained away by a placebo response.

The review by the committee was very narrow and cursory. The committee did not entertain evidence of effectiveness, which is actually what patients care most about. Even more troubling, the committee's report makes recommendations to government in isolation of context and apparently without concern about its impact on patients and the NHS. If homeopathic patients are pushed to other more expensive services how will it help the NHS funding crisis? What about patients who have found nothing but homeopathy has helped them?

Homeopathy has been part of the NHS since its inception and has helped hundreds of thousands of people. In the NHS homeopathy is provided by doctors, which is the best and safest way to access care.

It does seem an irresponsible way of decision-making for a Committee of only three MPs out of 14 on the committee to draw conclusions that impact the health and welfare of thousands of patients from just four and half hours of verbal testimony on three distinct topics and from a number of written submissions that were each limited to just 3000 words.

We at the BHA and Faculty know patients benefit from homeopathy, we hear their stories daily, and emphatically believe patients should retain their right to access homeopathy on the NHS.

Please ask your MP to sign EDM 908 and, if possible, ask him or her to write to Chair of the Science & Technology Committee, Phil Willis MP, stating why they support the EDM.

Click here to see if your MP has already signed EDM 908

Click here to ask your MP to sign EDM 908