Leicestershire MP welcomes news that homeopathy can continue on the NHS
An MP has welcomed news that homeopathy can continue on the NHS.
David Tredinnick, the MP for Bosworth, argued patients should have the option of such treatments, despite opposition from sceptics who believe homeopathy is unproven.
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David Tredinnick, the MP for Bosworth has acupuncture
A report by the Commons select committee on science and technology said there was no evidence homeopathy worked.
However, this week health minister Anne Milton said: "The NHS and clinicians are best placed to make decisions on treatment as appropriate."
Mr Tredinnick, who uses alternative therapies, said: "I am happy not so much for myself as for all who want to be able to use this form of treatment.
"The Government wants to leave doctors and patients free to use it and I think that is right."
Mr Tredinnick's support for alternative therapies prompted science journalist Michael Brooks to stand against him in the General Election.
He said: "I am astonished that a group of MPs can go to the trouble of making an objective assessment and then have it undermined.
"It is incredibly short-sighted because it sets the agenda for other scientific conclusions to be dismissed as irrelevant."
Leicestershire County and Rutland Primary Care Trust and University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust both said they did not commission homeopathic treatments.
Hinckley GP Nick Willmott said: "If resources were unlimited there would be a better argument for continuing to support it but with the NHS cuts proposed it is hard to see how a branch of alternative medicine that has a poor scientific evidence base is being supported."
3 Comments
by Robbo the Yobbo, West End of Leicester
Monday, August 02 2010, 1:56PM
“It should be a matter of grave concern to his constituents that this MP believes in such mumbo-jumbo.”
by Mike, Leicester
Thursday, July 29 2010, 6:14PM
“David Tredinnick is the classic example of someone whose mind is so open his brain has fallen out. This is the man who claimed astrology software on expenses. This is the man who is on record in Hansard as having claimed, in all seriousness, that blood doesn't clot well on the night of a full moon. He's bonkers.
As for homeopathy, it's a con pure and simple. It's just water and sugar pills and there is not one single properly documented case of homeopathy curing a non-self-limiting condition. Not one!
It's just a placebo. And the clear proof of that is that, if it wasn't, if there was any clear evidence in its favour, even just a little bit, then we would have to completely rewrite everything that the human race has discovered about not just medicine but all aspects of biology, chemistry and physics. This, ah, hasn't happened yet.
People who practice homeopathy are charlatans who talk gobbledegook, believe in fairies and - this is important - endanger patients by actively opposing effective conventional medicine such as vaccinations. For even a penny of taxpayers' money to be spent on this nonsense is outrageous.”
by Jon, leics
Thursday, July 29 2010, 11:02AM
“"a poor scientific evidence base"
Thats the whole problem with homeopathic medicine it cannot be "proven" by current scientific methods so the established scientific establishment dismiss it all outright.
What must be remembered is that millions of people wordwide use homeopathic medicines that apparently work in their case and discoveries are being made all the time proving traditional medicines work.
I have successfully used so called unproven homeopathic remedies to alleviate a problem I suffered when the medical establishment could only offer an irreversible clinical proceedure with no guarantee it would work at all.”