Prominent homeopathy advocate Dr Peter Fisher and leading skeptic Simon Singh went head to head on Radio 4’s Today on Friday when they were asked to comment on plans to end NHS funding for homeopathic treatments.
Asked bluntly by Today anchor Justin Webb “does homeopathy work, because scientists say it doesn’t?” Fisher – who is director of research at the Royal London Hospital of Integrated Medicine – replied: “Of course it does, and it is a gross simplification of you to say that scientists say it doesn’t. He added: “The most recent analysis of all the clinical trials on homeopathy conducted by the Robertson Centre for Biostatistics at the University of Glasgow came to a clearly positive result when it was published last December.”
But science writer Singh (and co-author of Trick or Treatment? Alternative Medicine on Trial) said: “There are many reasons why a few studies may show that homeopathy has some benefit. But when you look at all the data, to the editors of the best medical journals, the chief medical officer, and you look at the report of the House of Commons Select Committee – homeopathy doesn’t work.”
And when Webb suggested to Singh that the cost of homeopathy in the NHS was “tiny out of a total NHS budget of nearly £100 billion”, he commented: “The money is one part of this – and £4 million is £4 million. But perhaps more important is that when the NHS funds homeopathy it gives it undue credibility. These pills typically have nothing in them whatsoever. But you find charities that will send homeopaths to West Africa to treat ebola, or Southern Africa to treat Malaria. Every week I am contacted by the relative or friend of somebody who has died because they were misled by a homeopath.”
“There are have been a number of comparative effect studies where GP practices that use homeopathy are compared to those that don’t – typically in France or Germany, but also in the UK. All of them show that you get better outcomes with homeopathy”
Webb asked Fisher why NHS funding was needed. “Can’t homeopathy be done outside of the NHS, for people who like it?”. Fisher replied that “there is evidence that bears on precisely this issue”. He explained: “There are have been a number of comparative effect studies where GP practices that use homeopathy are compared to those that don’t – typically in France or Germany, but also in the UK. All of them show that you get better outcomes with homeopathy. Either you get a plain better outcome, or get the same outcome for less drugs.”
