Homeopathy: Medicine for the 21st Century

We believe that the increasing attacks on homeopathy stem from a relatively small, unrepresentative, but influential group of journalists, people trained in orthodox medicine and others. These attacks have included articles in the press, letters to Primary Care Trusts from groups of individuals, books and television programmes.

 

Our view is that this is a deliberate campaign, and we (a group of enthusiastic homeopaths and supporters) have decided to enable all those who respect the value of homeopathy to confront the attacks with a campaign of their own.

 

We do not represent any particular organisation of homeopaths or patients but offer ourselves as a campaigning organisation in which all can take part. So far H:MC21 is achieving this aim, and has generated support from the whole range of those interested in homeopathy, from new patients to practitioners with over 40 years of experience.

 

We do not represent an opposition to orthodox medical practitioners, since they too are committed to alleviating illness and suffering. At the same time we recognise that they are confronted by problems in their work, such as the fact that the £8bn drugs bill of the NHS is allied to a £2bn bill for adverse reactions to those drugs. (1,2) We believe that these orthodox medical practitioners are entitled to honest information about homeopathy as an alternative, and to the results of honest testing of the homeopathic approach to treatment.

 

We do not believe that medicine should be privatised, but that medical treatment free at the point of delivery is one of the great achievements of civilised society.

 

We understand why there is significant support for the idea that evidence based medicine (EBM) is a necessary approach if we are to have safe and effective treatments. We also believe that this idea is demonstrably wrong, and that while the approach of EBM may reduce the risks of extensive harm from medicines, it is inherently unable to provide validity to claims of effectiveness.

 

We believe evidence based medicine should be replaced by science based medicine. To this end we are determined to expose the scientific weaknesses which underly EBM, and to propose increasing use of the homeopathic model of health and disease.

 

As part of this process we are planning to systematically challenge the arguments of those attacking homeopathy, publishing critiques of their claims, and pointing out the scientific, polemical and methodological flaws in their arguments.

 

We are also challenging attempts by those with influential positions in orthodox medicine to subvert the decision-making processes of NHS trusts and undermine the public's right to be treated with homeopathy by the NHS.

 

If you want to get involved or to be kept in touch with what we are doing, contact us at:

     info@hmc21.org.

 

References

1.  ‘Call to curb rising NHS drug bill’, BBC News website, 3 April 2008 at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7190267.stm, accessed 27 November 2008.

2.  Sarah Boseley, ‘Adverse drug reactions cost NHS £2bn’, The Guardian, 3 April 2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/apr/03/nhs.drugsandalcohol, accessed 14 November 2008