There was a thread recently in one of the Facebook groups I’m a member of in which, among other election-related things, the Green Party’s Health Policy was being discussed. It was mentioned that the Green Party had been essentially pro- CAM , at least in the past. As I’d been considering voting for the Greens, this was something I thought I should look into further.

Here’s a link to their Health Policy. My first impressions of this document were quite positive, especially seeing that one of their “Key Principles” seems to echo the mission statement of the Society for Science Based Healthcare where it states that:

Decisions about health services should be based on the strongest possible evidence.

However, I found myself worried that this might just be paying lip service to evidence-based policy. Particularly considering the comments I’d seen regarding past policy, and some other sections of the current Health Policy such as:

The Green Party will… Find ways to integrate complementary therapies that have a sound evidence base into health services. The Green Party will … Increase resources for physical and mental rehabilitation in… complementary practices.

Of course, complementary therapies that have a sound evidence base should be “integrated” into real medicine. That’s exactly what medicine should be – therapies with a sound evidence base. However, as I said before, I felt worried this mention of evidence may just be lip service, or perhaps that the standard of evidence required might be low (as I’ve typically seen when it comes to the promotion of complementary therapies).

As you’ll have seen if you’ve clicked on the Health Policy link, Kevin Hague is listed as the spokesperson for this policy, as well as the person to contact. So that’s what I did. Below is the email I sent him, and the response I received (much faster than anticipated – within 2 hours):

Hello Mr Hague, My name is Mark Hanna. I don’t think we’ve met, although we were both at the New Zealand Skeptics conference in Wellington last year. I’m currently considering giving my party vote to the Greens this election but I wanted to email you first to clarify something about one of the policy statements. I spend a lot of my spare time working with regulatory systems to combat misinformation about health and healthcare in the public sphere. The vast majority of this misinformation comes from sources that promote “complementary therapies”. To this end, I’ve made dozens of successful complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority and Medsafe, and have recently co-founded the Society for Science Based Healthcare as part of this continued effort. I’ve also written on some aspects of publicly funded healthcare in New Zealand that I find troubling and would very much like to see change, such as ACC’s stance on acupuncture (http://sciblogs.co.nz/honestuniverse/?p=41). I’ve read the Green Party’s Health Policy (https://home.greens.org.nz/policy/health-policy); I’m glad to see an emphasis on evidence and I strongly support with [sic] party’s focus on equality in healthcare and making it as accessible as possible. However, I’m also wary that I don’t want my party vote to inadvertently support the kind of thing I spend so much of my time fighting against. Most particularly, I am worried about point 7 under the “Whole-of-System Healthcare” section: “Find ways to integrate complementary therapies that have a sound evidence base into health services.” As you may be aware, the majority of complementary therapies have a very poor evidence base. Even in cases where there is a large amount of research, in general it is of poor quality, and in very many cases the use of complementary therapies is simply not supported by sound evidence. Other sections of the Health Policy add to my concern here, such as the 1st point under “9. Post-Acute Care” which says “The Green Party will… Increase resources for physical and mental rehabilitation in… complementary practices”. Before I commit my party vote, I’d appreciate it if you could assuage my fear that the reference to sound evidence may be no more than lip service. In general terms, what would the Green Party consider the minimum standard of a sound evidence base in this context? Could you describe what the evidence for a treatment that does not meet this standard might look like? As part of their commitment, will the Green Party also make an effort to prevent the integration of therapies (whether “complementary” or otherwise) into health services where there is not a sound evidence base? I also note the party has pledged to: “Support rongoa Māori (traditional Māori healing) practitioners and practices, and develop better linkages with other health services.” I’m wary that when dealing traditional healing practices such as rongoa Māori and Traditional Chinese Medicine, the complex issues of science- and evidence-based healthcare and cultural sensitivity and inclusiveness can become entangled. Will the Green Party maintain their commitment to basing decisions about health services being based on the strongest possible evidence even when dealing with complex and often difficult issues such as these? I’m under the impression that other people I know who are also considering giving their party vote to the Greens could also be swayed one way or the other depending on your response. I’d appreciate it if I could have your permission to publicly share any response you send me regarding this. Sincerely

Mark Hanna

This is the response I received from Kevin Hague:

hi Mark,

I’m an admirer of your work. Thank you for it! As you probably know, Green Party policy is developed by members, rather than MPs, and the Policy Committee strives for consensus if possible. if you have compared the current Health policy with its predecessor (and my statements with those of my predecessor in the role) you will have noted substantial change that I think you would be pleased with. The statement in the principles concerning complementary therapies, is a neat compromise I think (nobody can really argue for the use of public money on something that doesn’t work, but if it does work then it should be integrated), but does give rise to your question of what kind of evidence would be sufficient. In practice it would be me as spokesperson who would interpret the meaning of the policy (this is established practice in the Green Party). My first port of call would be Cochrane. If there is no guidance there, then it’s probably a no, but as someone who used to teach at postgrad level in research methods I would also be in a position to look at any papers that are proposed as providing evidence and make an assessment. The obverse of this commitment does also apply ie if the state is currently funding therapies with poor or no evidence of effectiveness then it should stop doing so. This applies both to ‘complementary therapies, but also to mainstream treatments (my favourite instructive example being mammary arterial ligation as a treatment for coronary heart disease – it’s worse than ineffective). In the case of rongoa I think matters actually are more complex. In addition to the cultural sensitivity matters to which you refer there are also Article II Treaty rights, so it’s not simply a matter of evidence. And when it comes to the evidence, far fewer studies have been undertaken. You probably know that there is significant evidence internationally that such indigenous treatment systems may be effective, even though their intervention logic and mechanism are quite different from traditional western approaches (eg Kleinmann in relation to mental illness in Taiwan). It could be that strongly held cultural beliefs may create a substantial placebo effect. Sometimes, even if we know the effect is just placebo, it could be worth having. So on this point I would interpret our policy as supporting the availability of rongoa, even though the evidence base for effectiveness may not be strong. I would also support further research to create a sound evidence base, where this doesn’t currently exist. Hope that’s useful. Please feel free to share this if you want. Best, Kevin

Honestly, I’m quite happy to hear this answer. It sounds to me like the mentions of evidence are more than lip service, and hopefully indicative of a change in direction for the Greens in this area. The fact that Kevin Hague is their spokesperson on Health and ACC gives me hope as well. Especially comparing him to their past Health spokesperson Sue Kedgley, who has some ideas about healthcare that are rather wacky.

I would like to make one more comment regarding the issue of traditional medicine such as rongoa. First off, rongoa is not something I’ve looked into in much depth, I don’t know much about the state of the evidence and don’t mean to discuss it here. I would like to say though, that when I referred to issues like it being “complex and often difficult”, I meant to imply that it is not as simple as it may be in some other cases, where the only important question may be “what does the evidence say?”.

These traditions are often more than just for healing, they’re part of a wider culture and the people that use them are often already part of a disadvantaged group. If we care about what’s best for people, then we also need to care about the repercussions of discouraging or somehow diminishing such a part of their culture. As Kevin mentioned in his response, this is where things like the Treaty of Waitangi become important. There’s also an important distinction to be drawn between treatments for which there is negative evidence and those for which there is no evidence one way or the other.

I certainly wouldn’t claim to have all the answers when it comes to issues like this, and I think it’s a matter on which I would do better to listen than to speak. I do agree with Kevin that it’s not simply a matter of evidence, though, and I’d welcome a discussion on this particular issue if anyone else has anything to add.