NHS rethinking homeopathy

Darat said:
There is only one "medicine" there is no such thing as "western" medicine! :mad:

And the second phrase really gives the impression that "they" may be able to cure or treat diseases that "western medicine" can't! :mad:
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I think the idea of 'Western medicine' is significant in understanding some attitudes towards alternative therapies. Some people really believe that 'alternative therapies' are only alternative because they (often) come from a non-Western tradition, rather than because they are not evidence-based. This is exploited by people who promote them because nobody wants to be seen as biased against other cultures.

For example, there was a recent bbc news article reporting that a majority of people surveyed believe complementary medicine is as 'valid as conventional medicine'. Only one in four thought 'western medicine was the only way to treat health problems'. I suspect that more than one in four would think 'scientifically tested medicine is the only way to treat health problems'. I haven't seen the original survey, but its sounds to me like a deliberate attempt to confound 'conventional' with 'western'.

The question is ridiculous. Why should the cultural origin of a medicine have any relevance?
 
Excuse my ignorance. What is NHS? The website doesn't mention what the letters NHS mean.
 
Asolepius said:
I am hoping that qestions may be asked in Parliament about these soon. Yes, it's our money the NHS is spending and they are accountable to us. We are rightly angry. Keep it going - better to come from lots of us than just a few.
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This is something that has crossed my mind a few times recently. Has anyone here tried contacting their local MP and if so, what sort of reaction did you get?
 
Homoeopathy was invented in Germany. In what way isn't that western?

Come to that, veterinary acupuncture in its entirety (and quite a lot of what nowadays passes for human acupuncture) was invented in France.

Rolfe.
 
Rolfe said:
(Try catering for the demand for hip replacements, I say.)
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I hear that University College Hospital has since been closed down, but when it was open and my father was in it, I would have been reasonably happy to see them cater to putting flyscreens on the windows in the ITU or actually cleaning some of the muck off the wainscoting. And this was the self-same ITU that they had gotten ready for George Bush Sr. should he have had heart problems during his trip to London.
 
ohms said:
This is something that has crossed my mind a few times recently. Has anyone here tried contacting their local MP and if so, what sort of reaction did you get?
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Just before the last general election several of us contacted the candidates in their areas. (Had a quick search but couldn't find the thread - anyone else?)
 
I contacted mine (Charles Kennedy), and basically got a photocopy of the Lib Dem manifesto with respect to healthcare. I suppose that just before an election things get very busy for a leader's office. Perhaps I should try again now that he has a bit more time on his hands (hoho).

Since the boundaries were changing at that election I also contacted my outgoing MP, who did find time to send me a letter along the lines of "We believe in giving people choice". All quite unsatisfactory really.

Edited to add link to original threadhttp://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=50730
 
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ohms said:
This is something that has crossed my mind a few times recently. Has anyone here tried contacting their local MP and if so, what sort of reaction did you get?
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I tried during the last parliament with my then MP Valerie Davey. In her case, although generally sympatheic to the cause, her level of ignorance was high. For example she wasn't aware of the dofference between herbal and homoeopathic remedies. Correcting that kind of ignorance by letter is hard.

Futhermore, she has other constituents who are very pro homoeopathy so unless she gets a critical mass of complainants, it's not in her political interests to do anything. In the last election, she was replaced by a Libdem creature, Stephen Williams.
 
ohms said:
This is something that has crossed my mind a few times recently. Has anyone here tried contacting their local MP and if so, what sort of reaction did you get?
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Oh yes, I got my MP to ask the Dept for Health all sorts of questions, and I got quite incriminating answers about NICE and about homeopathic hospitals. Effectively this handed the Opposition on a plate a case against the government, in the run up to the election. Guess what they did with it? No prizes - absolutely nothing of course. I don't think it helps that our MP is a member of the Church of England Synod and the son of a bishop. But you may be luckier. You need to know your MP's interests, which are listed on Parliament's website. There are loads of all-party groups, including a thriving one for sCAM - but of course nothing for evidence-based medicine. Finding rationalist politicians is quite difficult.
 
Thanks for the links and informative posts folks. It made depressing, but not unexpected, reading.
 
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