Whilst the "aims of the BMJ are to publish rigorous accessible information that will help doctors improve their practice" one hopes an additional reason would be to help relieve patients' symptoms?

Realising the BMJ is keen for its members to write in (BMJ2003;326:985 ) to express their opinions I am doing so in response to a letter by Obstetric consultant Susan Bewley which you published, ironically, on the page following your extensive editorial on 'Placebo by Proxy'. The letter gives voice to non GMC/ non BMA 'armchair clinicians' who are not involved in clinical care and who have a bigoted opinion on Homeopathy.

Did you know that patients like and respond to cost effective Homeopathy- especially those who have had failedinterventions from secondary care colleagues? http://www.facultyofhomeopathy.org/research/clinical_outcomes_studies.html

Did you know there is RCT scientific evidence Homeopathy works?http://www.facultyofhomeopathy.org/research/

Did you know there are some 400 GMC registered colleagues belonging to the Faculty of Homeopathy, some of whom are even BMA members, who incorporate Homeopathy in their daily clinical practice? http://www.facultyofhomeopathy.org/about_us/

Did you know clinical doctors who were initially most sceptical of Homeopathy (their number includes myself) having looked into Homeopathy become some of Homeopathy's strongest advocates?

Did you know Homeopathy is utterly different from a molecule in a drop in the oceans?

Did you know Digoxin and Ritalin act on Homeopathic principles?

Did you know there is an undemocratic minority lobby group whose members comprise the groups Sense about Science and Nightingale Collabortion who act to remove a person's constitutional right to choose which form of therapy they seek to help their symptoms with? The Nightingale Collaboration has published the CAP guidelines relating to homeopathic advertising drawn up by CAP on Friday, before these guidelines are even published by the CAP on their own website!

Did you know there is no single proven effective medical treatment for any condition with the term 'syndrome' in the diagnosis?

In my practice it is particularly those people with long term chronic conditions and the 'heartsinks' who appear to have found benefit from Homeopathy, making my GP working day sweeter.

Patients deserve to continue to be able to access Homeopathy, which has been available alongside standard treatment as a complementary therapy on the NHS, since the inception of the NHS, particularly when your own BMJclinical evidence data (http://clinicalevidence.bmj.com/ceweb/about/knowledge.jsp) indicate how inadequate our current knowledge is and especially at this time of financial difficulty.

Meanwhile research should continue to further advance our understanding of the effects of Homeopathy which continues to have real effects in patients' lives.

Yours sincerely

Andrew Sikorski MBBS MRCGP MFHom.

Competing interests: Dr Sikorski is a conventional NHS GP partner practicing integrated medicine including homeopathy alongside usual care.

Source http://www.bmj.com/content/343/bmj.d5960/reply#bmj_el_270540

Tags: homeopathy | doctor

This entry was posted on 29 September 2011 at 14:26.