Etat des lieux de l'homéopathie en Belgique - KCE

98 Homeopathy KCE Reports 154
6.3.4 Typical patient route
6.3.4.1 Taking the plunge into alternative medicine
Patients who have already consulted an alternative therapist do not reject conventional
medicine but tend to use it as part of a complementary approach. Indeed, the telephone
survey of the general population shows that, in general, 87% of respondents using
alternative medicine also consult a conventional physician, more often than not for the
same medical reason.
However, interviews with regular homeopathy users reveal that they generally favour
the homeopathic approach owing to their distrust and criticism of the efficacy, and
especially the side effects, of conventional medicine.
This means that they reserve homeopathy for certain indications or diseases and
conventional medicine for others, either with the same therapist (physician homeopath)
or with different therapists (e.g., physician homeopath and specialist).
When a patient is referred to a homeopathy practitioner it is mainly by word of mouth,
on the advice of relatives or acquaintances. A whole host of patients have been treated
with homeopathy since childhood and have remained loyal to this therapeutic approach.
Note also that 4% of the people interviewed by telephone have never used alternative
medicine because their attending physician advised them against it.
6.3.4.2 Consultations
In 50% of cases, an initial appointment with a homeopath is obtained in seven days.
For a child, the initial consultation with the majority of practitioners (51%) lasts
between 30 and 60 minutes and for an adult, between 60 and 90 minutes (41%). Among
23% of affiliated homeopaths, it exceeds 90 minutes.
Follow-up consultations are shorter, generally lasting 30 minutes.
An in-depth anamnesis (case-taking consultation), relating to matters that may
surprise patients, will enable unicist practitioners to identify, or move as close as
possible to, the similimum (the single most appropriate remedy for the individual) and
will enable complex or clinical practitioners to identify several homeopathic remedies.
In the first year, most patients will be seen by an affiliated homeopath four to six
times (52%) and between one and three times the following year (66%).
The prescribed remedy (or remedies) will be purchased in a pharmacy, although
some homeopaths stock them. Some remedies are on a common list compiled by all
sickness funds. They may therefore be subject to reimbursement (the annual amount of
which is capped), either via the supplementary outpatient insurance or private
insurance, and in the latter case also in the context of hospitalisation.
Some remedies are only available to order, which practitioners say can pose a problem
in acute cases. This problem can be circumvented by patients keeping basic
homeopathic remedies at home or if duty pharmacies were to stock a kit of
100 remedies, as recommended by the UHB.
It has not been possible to evaluate the consumption of homeopathic remedies by the
general population for lack of reliable and accessible data.
For subsequent episodes of illness, regular users may engage in a form of assisted
self-medication, whereby patients take a known remedy after checking with their
homeopath whether this is the right choice, or after a telephone consultation. Unless
the symptoms improve significantly within two to three days, the patient will be asked
to make an appointment.