This week, David Tredinnick (MP for Bosworth, Conservative, Capricorn) told us that astrology and homeopathy could help the NHS. In the past he’s told the House of Commons of the latter’s effectiveness in treating HIV, tuberculosis and malaria.
He is welcome to join me on my neurology ward rounds this week. He is welcome to meet the family of a 25-year-old woman in intensive care who has meningitis from fulminant tuberculosis. He is welcome to offer her family the option of treating their daughter with a homeopathic elixir that will slowly drip through her intravenous cannula. And he is welcome to tell the family the result of his experiment.
This piece is not about how ineffective homeopathy is because lots of other people have written about that. Tredinnick’s comments draw attention to much broader issues in the NHS: how best to use its finite resources in its current perilous state and how to ensure solid science drives these difficult decisions. But in case you need a refresher on homeopathy – it’s core principle is “like cures like”. Take a substance that causes a given illness, dilute it until you’re exhausted from all the diluting, and now swallow it in a sugar pill. Rather poetically, success results since “molecules in highly diluted substances retain a ‘memory’ of the original substance”.
Back to Tredinnick, who was elected by fellow MPs to the health select committee having stated that “science has worked out that hangovers and visits to one’s GP may be affected by the awesome power of the moon”. Isn’t it a good thing that nobody in the government listens to him? And isn’t it good that our limited NHS funds are not wasted on quackery?
Hang on. It transpires that Tredinnick and the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, are pen pals with benefits. Hunt flew the flag for homeopathy in 2006, signing an early day motion to embrace NHS homeopathic hospitals. In an LBC interview last year, he admitted to a moment of insanity: “Without really thinking I signed up to it.” This is the sort of thing one might say the morning after drunkenly signing up to Tinder – less so having signed a parliamentary motion.
The House of Commons science and technology committee unambiguously concluded in 2010 that the NHS should cease funding for homeopathy: “When the NHS funds homeopathy, it endorses it.” Yet Hunt, following lobbying from Tredinnick, continues to commission reviews into it.
Hunt is not alone in his enthusiasm to spend NHS money in this manner. The Green party leader, Natalie Bennett, is said to support the role of homeopathy in the NHS. Ukip has previously supported NHS-funded homeopathy but its last manifesto thankfully fell silent on the issue. Labour has reassured us that Luciana Berger, its public health spokesman, will not continue her support for it. The Liberal Democrats manifesto is en route, but Tredinnick’s Lib Dem opponent Michael Mullaney had this to say: “If even Dr Wollaston, a fellow Conservative MP, is saying David Tredinnick is wrong and should be ignored, it is time he listened and stopped opening his mouth on things he knows nothing about.”
The NHS is on the brink of a financial crisis. The King’s Fund reports that the “next government will arrive in office with the NHS facing financial meltdown and social care in crisis”. An additional £8bn a year in funding is needed by 2020, with £22bn of productivity improvements. One could argue that the amount spent on discredited treatments such as homeopathy is a drop in the ocean in light of these daunting figures. One oft-quoted government response is that homeopathic prescriptions accounted for only 0.001% of the total 2010 prescribing budget.
But this does not tell the whole story. In 2013, the NHS paid £137,000 for homeopathic prescriptions. This equates to salaries for up five specialist nurses. Other ways to use that money include 459 MRI scans or 196 cataract operations – definitely not a drop in the ocean.
At last count, up to 15% of clinical commissioning groups were still funding homeopathy. South Gloucestershire CCG, for example, spent £24,169 on homeopathy last year. It could have employed a mental health nurse with that money. A new specialist epilepsy nurse might have reduced A&E attendances by up to half, saving more than £17,000 a year. The government’s advisory board on the registration of homeopathic products met four times in 2013 – that’s 13 members being paid £325 per meeting (plus expenses), or £16,900.
The Glasgow Centre of Integrative Care, formerly known as the Homeopathic Hospital, disclosed an annual budget of £1.28m last year, funded by NHS boards (that seem to be ignoring the House of Commons 2010 recommendation).
I want to use my vote – not astrology – to help the NHS, but I am still not sure which party to vote for. Uncertain as to how to ensure NHS resources are funnelled towards evidence-based treatments and not quackery? Party manifestos across the political spectrum will be released in the coming days and an unequivocal stance on these issues would help. In the meantime, it is easy to check what your CCG is funding – or not funding for that matter.
David Tredinnick, you’re still welcome to join me on that ward round. I’m a Gemini by the way. I hope that won’t put you off.
