Homoeopathy (Hansard, 13 July 1979)

§ Mr. Tom Ellis (Wrexham)

I am grateful for the opportunity and privilege to present a petition about homoeopathy signed by 116,781 persons.

The petition reads as follows: To the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled. The Humble Petition of the citizens of the United Kingdom sheweth

1. That Homoeopathy with its longstanding history of success, to which patients are entitled under the National Health Service and which many citizens desire to have, is an alternative to orthodox medicine;
2. That despite repeated assurances from successive Ministers of H.M. Government that homoeopathic treatment would remain available within the National Health Service such treatment is difficult to obtain;
3. That the Government's failure to give assurances of the continuance of homoeopathic hospitals, and in particular to give an assurance on the only hospital in the United Kingdom providing full postgraduate courses in Homoeopathy, namely the Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital, Great Ormond Street, London, jeopardises the present and all future facilities for homoeopathic medicine in the United Kingdom;
4. That despite all these assurances, the Council for Postgraduate Medical Education has decided not to commend courses in Homoeopathy for approval by Postgraduate Medical Deans of Universities thus denying the doctors their rights to obtain grants for courses in a form of medicine recognised by the National Health Service;
5. That the Council for Postgraduate Medical Education has stated that " training in Homoeopathy is not of sufficient relevance to modern medical practice to warrant financial support under Section 63 of the Health Service and Public Health Act 1968 ", a statement your Petitioners find deeply concerning;
6. That if doctors are unable to qualify in this legitimate and valuable branch of medicine, all the assurances previously given will be invalidated;
7. That currently the Government hold the view that any medical practitioner without the necessary and specialised qualifications in Homoeopathy is open to employ that form of medicine, if he considers it appropriate, which again your Petitioners find deeply disturbing;

Wherefor your Petitioners humbly pray that your Honourable House will urge the Secretary of State for Health, Secretary of State for Scotland and the Secretary of State for Wales

(1) to give an undertaking as to the continuance of the Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital with its postgraduate training and teaching facilities on its present site in order to preserve its unique national role, together with the continuance of the other homoeopathic hospitals in the United Kingdom,
(2) to declare that homoeopathy should be more readily available for all those citizens who desire this form of treatment,
(3) to make grants available in order that doctors who wish to qualify in Homoeopathy may do so, so that homoeopathic medical practitioners will be available both now and in the future within the National Health Service to make qualified and appropriate clinical judgments on their patients desiring homoeopathic medicine to which they are entitled under the National Health Service.

And your Petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray, etc.