Regulation and Prevalence of Homeopathy - Europe - European Union - United Kingdom

United Kingdom

While the practice of homeopathy in the UK is not regulated by law, homeopathic medicines are regulated by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.

In Britain, homeopathy has been in a state of steady decline over recent years. The number of National Health Service (NHS) prescriptions for homeopathic remedies dropped by over 85% between 2000 and 2010 (from 134,000 to 16,359), with homeopathy accounting for only 0.001% of the total 2010 prescribing budget. The Tunbridge Wells Homeopathic Hospital, then one of four homeopathic hospitals operated by the NHS, was closed in 2009 following a drop in referrals and a review by the West Kent Primary Care Trust of funding of homeopathy. In September 2010 another of the four, the Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital, was renamed as the Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine to more accurately reflect the nature of its work. A fifth homeopathic hospital run by the NHS, the Hahnemann Hospital in Liverpool, had been closed in 1976.

In 1991 up to 37% of General Practitioners used homeopathy, but a review carried out by West Kent NHS Primary Care Trust in 2007 found that less than 1% of registered patients were referred for homeopathic treatment, and that this was almost always at the patient's request rather than as the result of a clinical decision. In 2011 the British Homeopathic Association said that 400 General Practitioners used homeopathy in their everyday practice. The British Homeopathic Dental Association (BHDA) claimed to have 69 dentists, while the British Association of Homeopathic Veterinary Surgeons has 36 vets listed as members. There are over 41,000 general practitioners and around 24,000 registered veterinary surgeons in the UK, and almost 23,000 dentists doing NHS work in England. In 2009 there were approximately 2,000 homeopaths, who are not GP's, registered with various organisations. A systematic review of surveys, published in April 2013, concluded that homeopathy is used by UK medical professionals to a minor degree, and that on average referral rates are low.

Around 2009, a few UK universities started closing or reviewing their courses on homeopathy and complementary medicine, after accusations that they were teaching pseudoscience. These courses had been attracting bad publicity and criticism for the universities teaching them. In May 2010 it was announced that junior doctors' training would no longer include placements at the Glasgow Homeopathic Hospital.

In 2012/13 there were only two universities left in the United Kingdom offering homeopathy degrees.

In February 2010 the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee concluded that: "the NHS should cease funding homeopathy. It also concludes that the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) should not allow homeopathic product labels to make medical claims without evidence of efficacy. As they are not medicines, homeopathic products should no longer be licensed by the MHRA." Part of the conclusions state that "When the NHS funds homeopathy, it endorses it. Since the NHS Constitution explicitly gives people the right to expect that decisions on the funding of drugs and treatments are made 'following a proper consideration of the evidence', patients may reasonably form the view that homeopathy is an evidence-based treatment." Since no evidence of benefit was found – other than the placebo effect – the report's recommendation was that "The Government should stop allowing the funding of homeopathy on the NHS." The government stated that this decision would be left open to the Primary Care Trusts, the smaller bodies in charge of regional NHS management, instead of being done by the government itself. In June 2010, the British Medical Association voted three to one in favour of a motion that homeopathy should be banned from the NHS, and kept from being sold as medicine in pharmacies. In February 2011, out of 104 Primary Care Trusts who responded to queries, 72 said they did not fund homeopathy, with 10 of these having stopped funding homeopathy in the last four years. By the 2011/12 financial year the percentage of PCTs funding homeopathy had fallen to 15%.