Intended for healthcare professionals

Rapid response to:

Observations Reality Check

Assaulting alternative medicine: worthwhile or witch hunt?

BMJ 2012; 344 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.e1075 (Published 15 February 2012) Cite this as: BMJ 2012;344:e1075

Rapid Response:

Re: Assaulting alternative medicine: worthwhile or witch hunt?

Why should it matter if the public want alternative medicine and are prepared to pay for it? Why shouldn’t university courses teach mumbo-jumbo medicine to feed the alternative medicine industry? What is wrong in believing in meridians or phials of magic water containing nothing but water?

I think it would be wrong to assume that critics of alternative medicine are that bothered if the public chose to avail themselves of crackpot medicine. I suspect they don’t really care.

What critics of altmed do care about is NHS professionals practicing magic medicine at the tax payer’s expense and for universities to ‘legitimise’ under-graduate courses in alternative medicine, giving them a level of respectability that they do not deserve.

The fact that some conventional university courses may be hard to justify does not mean that alternative medicine should fill the void.

Competing interests: No competing interests

27 February 2012
richard Bartley
Physiotherapist
NHS
Colwyn Bay