Advertisement

Humanists call to end Scottish NHS spending £1.7m on Homeopathy

NHS in Scotland is spending over £1.5m a year on the treatment Credit: PA

The Humanist Society Scotland have called on the Scottish Government Cabinet Secretary for Health, Shona Robinson, to review how NHS Boards are funding Homeopathy in Scotland.

This follows after NHS England announced they will end the funding of Homeopathy. If the changes go ahead in England, Scotland will be the only part of the UK where the NHS continues to fund the alternative treatment.

Good Thinking Society figures show funding for Homeopathy in the NHS in Scotland has reduced in recent years and shows six of the fourteen Scottish health boards spending £1.7m in the last year. The society says the funding could be better spent in other areas of healthcare:

It is absolutely vital that NHS spending is directed towards meaningful and effective treatments that have a real prospect of treating illnesses and other medical complaints. Homeopathy has continually been shown, time after time, to be no more effective than a simple placebo effect. The fact that the NHS in Scotland is spending over £1.5m a year on unproven remedies will stick in the throats of patients and campaigners who can see better uses for this resource in the NHS. Our NHS health treatments should be directed by robust scientific studies which show actual medical benefits."

– Gordon MacRae, Chief Executive, Humanist Society Scotland