Some people take the position that public money should not be spent on homeopathy because “there is no proof that it works” or “tax-payers money shouldn’t be spent on placebos”.
How much is spent on homeopathy?
Looking at the situation in the UK,
- from the total NHS drug budget of £9.2 billion a year, it spends £92,412 on homeopathic prescriptions1
- 0ut of the total NHS budget of £100 billion a year, it spends £4 million (0.004%) on Homeopathy.2
Approximately £4 million covers the whole service, from running the hospital departments to paying the doctors.2 When considering value for money, it should be remembered that if patients were not treated with the NHS homeopathy service, they would have to be treated by other NHS departments using more expensive conventional drugs.
Evidence-informed decision-making
Some people argue that the NHS should not pay for homeopathy because it has not been ‘scientifically proven’ to work , whereas conventional medical drugs are ‘tried and tested’. Surprisingly this issue isn’t actually as clear-cut as one might think.
Analysis by the British Medical Journal’s (BMJ) Clinical Evidence3 shows that just 11% of 3,000 commonly used NHS treatments are known to be beneficial:
This data clearly indicates that the NHS pays for many treatments besides homeopathy for which the evidence is still unclear.
What evidence is there that homeopathy helps NHS patients?
Five published observational studies carried out from 1999 to the present day have tracked the outcome of patients being treated at NHS homeopathic hospitals. These studies consistently show that patients improve clinically following homeopathic treatment (often from chronic, difficult to treat conditions); some also highlight areas of potential economic benefit in terms of reduced prescribing of conventional drugs. For example:
The largest study at Bristol Homeopathic Hospital followed over 6,500 consecutive patients with over 23,000 attendances in a six-year period.4
70% of follow-up patients reported improved health; 50% reported major improvement.
A 500-patient survey at the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital showed that many patients were able to reduce or stop conventional medication following homeopathic treatment.5
When assessing these clinical results it is important to remember that NHS patients are usually referred for homeopathy because conventional medicine has failed to give satisfactory results, or conventional treatment is contra-indicated in their case. One has to ask, if these homeopathy services were not available, who could treat these people instead? How ethical is it to remove a service that is currently valued by patients, without being able to offer them a viable alternative treatment?
Interesting related research from France
Homeopathy is widely used in France and a major study following 8559 patients attending GP practices was used to assess the effectiveness of homeopathic treatment.6
Two key findings of the EPI3 project:
- Upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) – patients treated by GPs trained in homeopathy did as well clinically as those treated with conventional medicine, but used fewer conventional drugs.7
- Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) – patients treated with homeopathy did as well clinically as those treated with conventional medicine, but used only half the amount of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and had fewer NSAID-related side effects.8
Can we trust this study?
This ’EPI3 study’ is managed by LA-SER a UK based company specialised in scientific evidence for medicine and health technologies (http://www.la-ser.com/). The project team includes individuals from high-profile institutions such as the Institut Pasteur in Paris, University of Bordeaux and McGill University, Montreal; Lucien Abenhaim is the French General Director of Health (Surgeon General).
REFERENCES:
- NHS Digital: NHS Prescription Cost Analysis 2016
- Freedom of Information Act request to the Department of Health by the Faculty of Homeopathy. Cost was £11.89 million between 2005 and 2008
- BMJ Clinical Evidence, Efficacy Categorisations. 2017. Available from http://clinicalevidence.bmj.com/x/set/static/cms/efficacy-categorisations.html [Accessed 25 Sept 2017]
- Spence D, Thompson E A, Barron S J. Homeopathic treatment for chronic disease: a 6-year university-hospital outpatient observational study. J Altern Complement Med, 2005; 5: 793-798 | PubMed
- Sharples F, van Haselen R, Fisher P. NHS patients’ perspective on
complementary medicine. Complement Ther Med, 2003; 11: 243-248 | PubMed - Grimaldi-Bensouda, L. et al. Benchmarking the burden of 100 diseases: results of a nationwide representative survey within general practices. BMJ Open, 2011; 1, e000215 | Full text
- Grimaldi-Bensouda, L. et al. Management of upper respiratory tract infections by different medical practices, including homeopathy, and consumption of antibiotics in primary care: the EPI3 cohort study in France 2007-2008. PLoS One, 2014;9: e89990 | Full text
- Rossignol, M. et al. Impact of physician preferences for homeopathic or conventional medicines on patients with musculoskeletal disorders: results from the EPI3-MSD cohort. Pharmacoepidemiol. Drug Saf, 2012; 21: 1093–1101 | PubMed
