The New Medicines Act proposals are putting access to homeopathic medicines under serious threat.

The new Medicines Act proposals, although welcome in many ways, are putting access to homeopathic medicines under serious threat.

Homeopathy: Medicine for the 21st Century (H:MC21) was launched in 2007 'to expose the ill-founded and propagandist nature of the attacks on homeopathy and to defend the right of people in the UK to choose homeopathy as a therapy within the National Health Service, as set out in its charter'.

And they are very concerned about the new Medicines Act proposals. As they say, it is a good thing that the Medicines Acts are to be consolidate and simplified, but, if the propsals go ahead as they stand, they could seriously affect our access to homeopathic medicines.

If the current proposals by the MHRA are endorsed by government the following would occur:

You would no longer able to get homeopathic medicines by phone or online
To get any unlicensed homeopathic medicine a face-to-face consultation would be required at a registered pharmacy. Unlicensed medicines number in the thousands and make up the majority of homeopathic prescriptions, while there are only 50 licenced homeopathic medicines. This will also mean you cannot legally buy unlicensed homeopathic medicines online or over the phone as you currently do.

Homeopaths would not be able to dispense or prescribe medicines
Homeopathic practitioners would not be able to dispense unlicensed homeopathic medicines to their patients. This arises because homeopaths are not recognised by this law as being supplementary prescribers and it will be illegal for homeopathic pharmacies to supply them with the essential (unlicensed) medicines required for their patients.

Patients would have to get homeopathic medicines personally at a handful of licenced homeopathic pharmacies in Britain
Hundreds of thousands of people who currently have prescriptions filled for unlicensed homeopathic medicines will be unable to obtain their urgent medicines. The estimated 6 million users of homeopathy in Britain cannot be expected to be supplied medicines face-to-face by less than five licenced premises.

If this concerns you, as it should, whether or not you use homeopathic remedies yourself, please take a few minutes to contat your MP. HMC21 has set out the bones of a letter for you to use and given the relevant contact details here on their site.

You could also sign an Avaaz.org petition here.

May 2012