A charity run by Prince Charles has been accused of pressuring the Department of Health into supporting homeopathy
[Hats off to Prince Charles, at least he does what a Royal should do, annoy the Allopaths.]
By Tamara Cohen
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A charity run by Prince Charles has been accused of pressuring the Department of Health into supporting homeopathy
An alternative health charity led by Prince Charles has been accused of pressuring the Department of Health into supporting homeopathy.
The chief medical officer Sally Davies has described the complementary therapy as ‘rubbish’.
But civil servants watered down an article on the NHS Choices website that had warned there was no evidence that homeopathic remedies work.
David Mattin, who drafted the original site entry, claims officials ‘suppressed’ his criticisms of homeopathy after lobbying from the Prince’s Foundation for Integrated Health.
He said: ‘My strong impression was of DoH civil servants who lacked the courage, and frankly the energy to stand up to the criticism from special interest groups that did indeed arise when a draft of the article fell into the hands of the Prince’s Foundation and other groups.’
In 2009 and 2010, charity representatives met civil servants to discuss the draft, which said homeopathy was ‘not always based on scientific principles’.
The charity then sent the Department of Health a string of strongly-worded emails objecting to the article, calling it ‘horrifying’.
Following the meeting a health official crossed out the critical line and wrote in the margin: ‘Can we remove this statement? We may be subject to quite a lot of challenge from the homeopathic community if published.’
Civil servants watered down an article on the NHS Choices website that had warned there was no evidence that homeopathic remedies work
University College London’s Professor David Colquhoun, who revealed the controversial decision on his website, said: ‘The Department of Health seem to think its job is not to present scientific evidence but to avoid upsetting homeopaths.’
A Department of Health spokesman said: ‘We are aware of concerns regarding the content of one page and we are currently looking into this.’