To think the NHS should stop spending £4 million a year on Homeopathy ?

[JugglingFromHereToThere]

Have been on the IVF thread in discussions of the day where understandably the issue of the NHS's scare resources and how these should best be spent came up.
Someone mentioned Homeopathy as one questionable area which currently recieves NHS funds.

Having googled the subject I found out that the NHS does indeed fund 4 Homeopathic hospitals in London, Bristol, Liverpool, and Glasgow, and spends £4 million a year on homeopathic treatments.

Having been a psychiatric nurse myself I recognise the value of taking a holistic approach to health and the value of counseling as an approach.
But I feel that the very unscientific and old-fashioned beliefs of homeopathy really have no place in an over-stretched 21st century NHS.
I'd be happy to see the hospitals converted to a simple holistic and counseling approach instead.

So what do you think and ....
AIBU ?!

It's completely nuts to spend any NHS money on Homeopathy...how about more midwives of Doctors instead?!

I'm shocked to hear this is available.

YANBU Placebo by another name.

Don't worry. King Charles III will lobby to alter that quantity of £4,000,000! Oh wait, that isn't comforting, is it?

I'm actually militantly against homeopathy, but I suppose only people who are homeopathy adherents visit this hospital, so my question is, what would the cost be if we gave them the conventional treatment they don't want?

Plus, I expect NHS homeopathic hospitals give people actual pure water, whereas I've heard anecdotes of Joe or Joanna Bloggs the homeopath giving homeopathic treatments which were contaminated with other materials, which their patient was allergic too.

Dara O'Briain called this one

"Oh, herbal medicine's been around for thousands of years!" Indeed it has, and then we tested it all, and the stuff that worked became 'medicine'. And the rest of it is just a nice bowl of soup and some potpourri, so knock yourselves out."

The NHS should not offer homeopathy. Personally I'd like to see that money diverted to mental health services which are chronically under resourced

I do believe in alternative treatments. And certainly taking an approach to viewing life overall rather that just the symptoms at times.

But having seen the cuts to the mental health department around here, and having waited six months for an operation where my pain levels are increasing every day, and having to go to London for a MRI scan because the wait here was over six months... I find it kind of annoying.

Lots of things the NHS should (or shouldnt) be spending money on - and this comes right at the bottom of the list.

Hello again! You are definitely NBU!!

YANBU. Though the £4 mill spent on homeopathy is just noise in the overall NHS budget of £109 billion, so cutting it probably won't make any meaningful difference to services elsewhere. (Still think it should be ditched though! Load of arse gravy.)

Yes, I think better funding for mental health, or for general counseling and holistic approaches would be very suitable uses for the saved funds.

Or my personal choice how about better support for new mothers in the early hours and days on post-natal wards - that would do so much good in reducing rates of PND and getting families off to the best possible start including supporting breast-feeding (which would probably all save the NHS money too)

At least re-name the hospitals "Holistic and homeopathic hospital" ?

And what about the eminently sensible people who don't believe in homeopathy - who do they get to talk to about their health in a holistic way ? And all sounds very middle class too.
Where's the inclusivity for people from different social groups and cultural backgrounds ?

Yanbu

YANBU, the nhs should only fund evidence based medicine. A holistic approach that takes into account mental health is vital, but a 'holistic' approach that wastes money on unscientific implausible woo is not.

staggered by this. Scandalous. Call Private Eye!

I think you're spot on there Marmite

Something I read questioned the integrity of the homeopathic doctors which I thought was interesting.
I mean do all the practitioners really believe what they are saying considering how illogical it is ?

EleanorBusby

I was given a very low quality of care, they were busy but just ignored me as they felt they knew best and assumed that as a first time Mother my labour would take ages.

From first contraction to birth it took 4.5 hours and was hell as they refused pain relief despite my requests. I was brought to the labour ward 40 mins before DS was born. 2nd degree tear & epiosotomy later, on requesting to see a Dr, the MW said she would be the one to decide whether I saw a Dr.

They may be overworked, but in my experience the MW's I saw did not care a damn about the women they were in charge of.

This time I'm having an elcs as I don't trust the profession of MW's to take care of me at my most vunerable time. A Consultant MW has ok'd this decision as she could not guarantee my second experience would be any better than my first. What does that say about a profession when this happens at a highly rated maternity unit?

I wouldn't mind £4 million of noise!

Homeopathy is total bollocks. Much better things to spend the money on

YANBU

They shouldn't be spending any money on woo.

Do we need to train more midwives? I thought want we needed to do was to employ the ones who are trained and unemployed?

I think it could also be rather undermining of more genuine holistic approaches such as counselling.

It seems to me that it's a confusing thing for the NHS to be saying to patients ....
There's not much evidence that this works etc but here try this !

The vestiges of Quackery ?

Madness. I'm shocked to hear this.

I suspect 4mill isn't much compared to other areas of treatment. I'm not shocked or surprised. As part of a rounded service it does make sense. I think there are bigger things to be shocked or outraged over in regards to NHS. This doesn't seem very much.

I completely agree, I have actually been sent to a homeopathic hospital so know first hand!

It was bloody awful, the man said my pain was me literally carrying the weight of my emotions on my shoulders and brought out this stupid cactus plant thing and said "this is you, you can't just make the plant grow, you have to nurture it". WTF!

A couple of years later I got a diagnosis of a genetic condition that is causing the pain.

I also had to fight to be put on the medication I am on, it is the only thing that helps but it a bit expensive. I think it's idiotic they could justify spending money on that loon and then say that I couldn't have the only medication that would actually help.
Ridiculous!

Yabu. It's not that much money in the scheme of things and the placebo effect can be very powerful if used appropriately. Lots of the people using the nhs aren't really ill and doctors aren't allowed to prescribe sugar pills anymore, so a homeopathic hospital is the next best thing...