You homeopath!

There was a story in the National today that NHS Lanarkshire is being attacked because it has decided to stop referring patients to the Centre for Integrative Care in Glasgow, also known as the Glasgow Homeopathic Hospital (GHH).  This has come about after a four-year appraisal by NHS Lanarkshire and will save money.  However, many people are upset that they will no longer be referred there and that NHS Lanarkshire have ignored their representations.

I will be upfront here.  I think homeopathy is nonsense. It has never been proven to have any effect other than that explainable by the placebo effect, and homepathic medicines contain no active ingredients, merely the 'memory' of active ingredients that the water once contained, but which are so diluted that no trace of the original substance remains.  Of course, if it was effective, presumably the water also contains the memory of all the other substances that it has ever contained.  Think about that next time you're passing a sewage works. 

So confident am I in my opinion, that I will happily take an entire bottle of any homeopathic remedy anyone cares to nominate.

Now I don't think homepathy should be banned.  I do think, however, that it is not something that public money should be spent on.  If people want to take homeopathic remedies then they should be free to do so, but they should pay for them themselves.  The money save by NHS Lanarkshire can be spent on scientifically proven treatments which will do a great deal more good than 'special' water.