Evidence Check 2: Homeopathy - Homeowatch

Evidence Check 2: Homeopathy 23fund it”. 107 The PCT concluded that homeopathy did not represent value for money andtook the decision to cease funding for TWHH. It now operates a policy “not to fundroutine homeopathy treatment”. 10885. We asked Dr James Thallon, Medical Director of NHS West Kent, whether the reviewcould be replicated by other PCTs. He considered that:our process in terms of its quality and the way that it is done with scrutiny is a goodroadmap for other organisations to adopt, and we would be very happy to act as aguide to other commissioning organisations that wish to follow this path. 109We then asked Dr Thallon whether the DH should circulate the review to other PCTs. Heresponded:I certainly do not think the issue of the decommissioning of non-evidence basedpractice should be beneath the Department of Health to help commissioningorganisations with. Yes, I would have thought there could well be a role for theDepartment of Health in helping other organisations get to the point we have got toshould they choose to do so. 110Dr Thallon did, however, distinguish between PCTs with homeopathic hospitals and thosewithout:We are in a particular circumstance because there is a homeopathic hospital withinour geographical locality and that is why we had to go to the lengths we did in orderto prove the case, […] to do this in every locality would be a diversion of otherwisescarce resources. 11186. We were impressed with NHS West Kent’s review of the commissioning ofhomeopathy and consider that it provides a good model for other commissioningorganisations, particularly those that fund homeopathic hospitals. We recommend thatthe Department of Health circulate NHS West Kent’s review of the commissioning ofhomeopathy to those PCTs with homeopathic hospitals within their areas. It shouldrecommend that they also conduct reviews as a matter of urgency, to determinewhether spending money on homeopathy is cost effective in the context of competingpriorities.Should NICE evaluate homeopathy?87. Another approach to aiding PCTs would be to have the National Institute of Healthand Clinical Excellence (NICE) evaluate homeopathy and produce guidance on whether it107 Ev 34, para 1.4108 Ev 37, para 7.1109 Q 146110 Q 147111 Q 146