Witchcraft or wonder cure? Homeopathy debate rages

Published: 15 July, 2010
by TOM FOOT

A HOMEOPATHY patient has rushed to the defence of her beloved hospital after it was threatened with closure.

Gill Arnold, a former gem trader who has lived in Swiss Cottage for 40 years, said she owed her independence to the natural remedies prescribed by experts at the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital (RLHH).

The Bloomsbury hospital is threatened with closure after Camden health bosses said they would stop funding homeo- pathy if no scientific evidence was found in a forthcoming review.

A top boss at the British Medical Association recently described homeopathic remedies as “witchcraft”.

But Ms Arnold, 60, who has endured severe arthritic pains following a surgical procedure in 1990, said: “My hands and wrist had become so weak – it got to the stage when I couldn’t hold up a book. Powerless to walk or use my hands, I was referred to the hospital by my GP. They gave me some tablets that I take every day and a course of acupuncture. Three years on, I can write, sew, point and even feed myself without looking like a toddler. 

“It worked for me and I feel very strongly about it. If they closed the hospital, I will go back to not being able to stand on my legs and use my hands.”

Homeopathy, devised in the 18th century by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann, is based on a like-for-like theory where substances which cause symptoms in a healthy person can, when vastly diluted, cure the same problems in a sick person.

The remedies are generally diluted to the point that none of the original ingredients remain, but the potion continues to “remember” its initial properties.

The “water memory” potions have been questioned by clinical experts, who have criticised them as a “dangerous deception” that could delay a trusting patient seeking proven medical help.

Dr Tom Dolphin, the deputy chairman of the British Medical Association’s junior doctors committee, stoked a fierce debate earlier this month when he compared homeopathy to “witchcraft”, adding: “It is a disgrace that nestling between the National Hospital for Neurology and Great Ormond Street there is a National Hospital for Homeopathy which is paid for by the NHS.” Ms Arnold said Dr Dolphin was behaving like an “idiot”. She said: “It’s like something out of the churches in the Middle Ages. Are they paranoid? Or in the lap of the pharmaceutical companies? You can’t test an awful lot in life. It doesn’t mean to say they’re not real.”

Users of a homeopathy at the Crossroads Women’s Centre released a joint statement saying: “Homeopathy is based on the close observation of patients’ symptoms and their responses to the remedies – not in vitro but in flesh.”

Hazel Abel, who lives in Albert Street, added: “All the doctors in the hospital are fully qualified – homeopathy is not witchcraft.”

NHS Camden spent £1.83million last year on funding homeopathy and the RLHH had a £20m refurbishment in 2005.

– Additional research by Sarraounia Christianson