Homoeopathic hospitals have unique skill

BMJ 1995;311:809 (23 September)

Letters

Homoeopathic hospitals have unique skill

EDITOR,--Although Iain Smith's editorial on the problems facinghealth authorities in commissioning complementary medicine mentionsseveral providers of complementary medicine, all of which areeither small and local or mostly private, it omits to mentionthe most important NHS providers of complementary medicine--thehomoeopathic hospitals.¹ There are five such hospitals in theNHS; four are parts of larger trusts, while one, the Royal LondonHomoeopathic Hospital NHS Trust, is a "stand alone" trust.

The homoeopathic hospitals are unique pools of medical skillin complementary medicine with established research recordsin just the type of research that Smith advocates.² ³ ⁴ Theyare the only dedicated complementary medicine hospitals in thepublic sector in Europe.⁵ Despite their name they do not provideonly homoeopathy. The Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital NHSTrust has services covering a wide range of clinical areas,including women's and children's clinics, rheumatology, dermatology,complementary treatment for cancer, back pain, . . . [Full text of this article]