Breaking News! Government backs NHS Homeopathy!

Dec 1, 2009: A wonderful day for British Homeopathy

Courtesy : Dr Kaplan Here follow the immortal words of Health Minister, Mike O’Brien: ‘We take the view that it is not our job to stop clinicians prescribing these medications if they feel they are appropriate.’ See more here. Striking a blow for liberty worthy of John Stuart Mill, the Honorable Minister went on to say that cutting the (NHS) funding would be “illiberal” and “a denial of personal choice”. He also said there were a range of opinions amongst clinicians and scientists which could not be ignored. This was after being grilled by the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee which comprised many people less than friendly to homeopathy. such as Edzard Ernst, Ben Goldacre and Tracey Brown all of whom lambasted homeopathy in the hearing. But the Health minister hinted at the essential point: NHS homepathy is practised by trained doctors who have to take responsibility for what they do. That is the headline and the bottom line and the middle line and all the other lines in between. Mike O’Brien knew it and had the guts to say it in the face of massive negative publicity in the media. Bravo Minister! This is a wonderful, frabjous day for homeopathy, medicine and freedom. The Jabberwock of opposition to NHS homeopathy has yet to be slain that’s for sure, but make no mistake about it, dear reader, this is a BIG day for homeopathy and I’ll be chortling for the rest of today that’s for sure! Evidence Check: Homeopathy 
Witnesses 
Professor Jayne Lawrence, Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, Robert Wilson, British Association of Homeopathic Manufacturers, Paul Bennett, Boots, Tracey Brown, Sense About Science, and Dr Ben Goldacre, The Guardian 
Dr Peter Fisher, Royal London Homeopathic Hospital, Professor Edzard Ernst, Complementary Medicine Group, Peninsula Medical School, Dr James Thallon, NHS West Kent, and Dr Robert Mathie, British Homeopathic Association
The Commons Science and Technology Committee holds the first evidence session of its inquiry into how the government uses evidence to formulate its policy on homeopathy
The whole proceedings are available on youtube.com . The links are given below :

PULSE TODAY | Homeopathy 'should be available on the NHS', says minister
01 Dec 09 By Nigel Praities
Homeopathy should remain available on the NHS despite no evidence it is more powerful than placebo, the Government said yesterday.

Health minister Mike O’Brien said GPs should have the freedom to prescribe a homeopathic treatment if they chose, subject to agreement by their local PCT.
The comments came during an evidence session of the House of Commons Science and Technology meeting, which is looking at the use of homeopathy on the NHS.
After some hard questioning from the committee, Mr O’Brien revealed up to £10 million was spent on homeopathic treatments by the NHS last year, despite no evidence they were effective beyond placebo.

‘There is some evidence that the placebo effect works and there are a lot of doctors who take the view that it works and it is also that case that we have a lot of people who believe in it,' he said.

‘But if you are asking me as a minister if there is enough evidence that is empirical and peer-assessed, then the answer is no,’ he admitted.

‘We take the view that it is not our job to stop clinicians prescribing these medications if they feel they are appropriate.'

Evan Harris MP, a member of the select committee, said the minister was supporting ‘paternalistic deception’ by continuing to allow homeopathic treatments to be available on the NHS.

SLANT and BIAS IN NEWS | Depending upon where you read the news you will feel the bias in the conclusion to the debate.

I searched Reuters Blog UK and entered homeopathy, homeoepathy, NHS and there were no articles found.

Then in the Reuters UK search engine also nothing was found. Web news came up with this top news: