Homeopathy is 'rubbish' and shouldn't be available on the NHS, says Britain's top doctor



NHS spends £4m a year on homeopathy treatments

Alternative therapy involves treating 'like with like', using very diluted substances

Dame Sally and the BMA say it is due to placebo effect

Defenders say homeopathy has passed more clinical trials than it had failed

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt and Prince Charles have both endorsed treatment



Homeopathy was condemned as ‘rubbish’ by Britain’s chief medical officer yesterday, who admitted she is ‘perpetually surprised’ it is available on the NHS.

Professor Dame Sally Davies also described homeopaths as ‘peddlers’ and spoke of her concern that they can prescribe pills and potions to treat malaria and other illnesses.

Giving evidence to an influential committee of MPs, Dame Sally said that homeopathy doesn’t work past the placebo effect.



Civil servants watered down an article on the NHS Choices website that had warned there was no evidence that homeopathic remedies work

In other words, any benefits patients perceive are simply caused by them receiving attention and simply expecting to feel better.

Her outspoken views are in conflict with the policy of the Health Service, which spends around £4million a year on funding homeopathic hospitals and on prescriptions and referrals.

Homeopathy, which has the backing of Prince Charles, claims to prevent and treat diseases using diluted forms of plants, herbs and minerals.

It is based on the principle that an illness can be treated by substances that produce similar symptoms.



Outspoken medic Professor Dame Sally Davies, left, has described homeopathy as 'rubbish' despite the fact it has been endorsed by high profile figures such as Prince Charles, right



For example, it is claimed onions, which make eyes itchy and tearful, can be used to relieve the symptoms of hay fever.

Other treatments include anti-malaria tablets made from African swamp water, rotting plants and mosquito eggs and larvae. But scientists argue the ‘cures’ are so diluted they are unlikely to contain any of the original substance.

Asked about her views on homeopathy by the Commons science and technology committee, Dame Sally – a consultant haematologist, or specialist in blood diseases, at the Central Middlesex Hospital from 1985 until 2011 – said: ‘I’m very concerned when homeopathic practitioners try to peddle this way of life to prevent malaria or other infectious diseases.’

She added: ‘I am perpetually surprised that homeopathy is available on the NHS.’ Dame Sally concluded by saying homeopathy ‘is rubbish’. Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has endorsed homeopathy.

In 2007, while shadow minister for the disabled, he signed an early day motion backing its use on the NHS.



Fifteen per cent of Britons have used homeopathy at some point in their lives.



The exact amount of NHS spending on the discipline is unclear but various homeopathic associations say it is as high as £4million a year.