Homoeo Info

Britons spend £130 million a year on complementary therapists, and the figure is set to reach £200 million over the next four years, as we grow ever more dissatisfied with conventional medicine.
The cost of sessions depends on the type of therapy, your location and also the practitioner, but it can run into hundreds, or even thousands, of pounds for regular customers. The first session is usually the most expensive because it involves a consultation.
If you are lucky, you might find a therapist who is not in the industry purely to make money, but more because he or she wants to help people. These magnanimous souls can charge as little as £20 an hour, rarely impose cancellation fees and will even let you pay less if you are hard-up.
Whether you pay £25 or £125, you are entitled to expect treatment from a trained and qualified therapist. The problem is that not all are.
There are plans for a new voluntary code for complementary therapists, which will act as a quality guarantee for the public. Some alternative therapies, such as homoeopathy and osteopathy, are already regulated.
However, in the absence of full regulation, anyone considering a visit should always check that the therapist belongs to a governing association and is listed as a practising therapist with relevant qualifications.
Times Online, UK – Feb 1, 2008

AS doctors urge suffers of the “winter vomiting virus” to stay away from surgeries and hospitals – homeopaths in Islington have seen an increase in calls for help.
An estimated 100,000 people a week across Britain are catching the norovirus and many Islington residents are turning to alternative medicine for a solution.
Islington homeopath, Alex Christie, is based at the Barnsbury Clinic in Belitha Villas, Islington.
She said: “The effects of the bug, which causes diarrhoea and vomiting, with some people also suffering from fever and flu-like pains, can be eased with homeopathic remedies and the process of recovery speeded up.
“In homeopathic medicine, the symptoms as they are experienced by the individual are taken into account to help find the best remedy. How the patient feels in themselves is also taken into account.”
Because remedies are non-toxic, they are suitable for use by people of all ages, including babies and pregnant women.
Homeopathy is patient-centred and remedies are prescribed to suit the particular individual and their set of symptoms.
Islington Gazette, UK – Jan 30, 2008

Over a fifth of NHS hospital trusts have cancelled or reduced funding of homeopathy in the past two years, after a campaign by leading scientists to remove the alternative therapy from the NHS.
In two open letters to primary healthcare trust managers in May last year, the scientists lambasted homeopathic remedies because they lack a robust scientific basis: “We must consider the cultural and social damage of maintaining as a matter of principle expenditure on practices which are unsupported by evidence.”
Homeopathy remedies involve diluting active substances so that there is not a single molecule of the original chemical left. Practitioners refer to a “memory” left in the water. But the signatories – which included a Nobel prize winner and six fellows of the Royal Society – say there is no convincing evidence that homeopathy works any better than a placebo. A survey by Pulse magazine has found that 22% of PCTs have reduced or cancelled spending on homeopathy in the last two years. The Royal London Homeopathic hospital is facing difficulties after eight trusts cancelled contracts over the past year and a further six reduced referrals.
Michael Baum, emeritus professor of surgery at University College London, who signed one of last year’s letters, described homeopathy as “cheap and nasty medicine” and a “cruel deception”. James Randerson, science correspondent/Guardian Unlimited, UK , Jan 30, 2008

NHS-funded homeopathic services are on the decline in the UK, it was reported today.
They have been hit hard by the government’s plans to increase the cost-effectiveness of NHS resources and many trusts are cutting their funding.
Only 37 per cent of 132 primary care trusts now have contracts for homeopathic services, an investigation by the journal Pulse found.
Homeopathy remains popular in general practice, being the second most used complementary treatment after acupuncture in a survey last year.
Nevertheless, the controversial treatment has been stopped or reduced in more than a quarter of trusts in the past two years.
Homeopathy suffered a blow in May 2006 when a group of experts told directors of commissioning that the treatment caused “cultural and social damage” and was “unsupported by evidence”.
But there is also a danger that patients denied homeopathic treatments on the NHS might take risks by consulting non-medical homeopathic practitioners, warns Dr Tim Robinson, a GP who provides a local homeopathic service in Dorset.
The deputy editor of Pulse, Richard Hoey, commented: “Homeopathy is a highly controversial treatment with all sorts of doubts over its evidence base, but it is popular with patients and has traditionally always had a place in general practice.
StaffNurse.com, UK – Jan 30, 2008