Doctor says homeopathy ‘squanders NHS resources’

A breast cancer specialist has said that homeopathic treatments available on the NHS represent a “squandering” of resources on a type of treatment that is “nonsense”.

Professor Michael Baum said that homeopathic medicines should be made subject to the same rigorous testing applied to medical suppliers and pharmaceutical companies, although he said he had nothing against alternative treatments so long as they demonstrably work, like acupuncture.

He told BBC Radio Four’s Today programme: “I am in favour of treatments that make people feel better but there is all the issue of evidence. How do we know that what we are witnessing is a real effect?”

“It doesn’t matter if the placebo is non-toxic and cheap. My concern is the issue of opportunity costs if the NHS is spending good money on placebos at the cost of not providing effective medicines,” he added.

“All we are asking for is a single standard. By all means, let homeopathy jump over the hurdles that we have had to jump over. There is nothing in homeopathy. It is nonsense,” the professor concluded.

Professor Baum commented that the NHS budget for homeopathic treatments would be better spent on Herceptin for women with breast cancer – a drug he said with indisputable effectiveness.

Dr Peter Fisher, clinical director of the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital, defended the use of homeopathic medicines.

He told the same programme: “Many surgical operations are not evidence-based and when clinical trials are done sometimes the results are surprising. There was a recent one with knee surgery, doing a mock operation, just making a scar then the effects are the same.”

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