But Jack, dear chap - isn't the violence of falling from a cloud 15,000 feet up enough of a shakeup for the homeopathic raindrops?

Mikey, Bromley, Kent

Thank heavens the NHS has finally come to its senses and we shall no longer be squandering money on this nonsense. If homoeopathy had ever been successful then there would never have been a need to produce the miracle which is modern western medicine. Dream on Jack, if you had a life-threatening illness would you go for the thuya?!
Julia, Brighton (Capital of new age nonsense)

Julia Millen, Brighton, UK

Jack Raymond

"A substance is 'potentised', as it is known, not when it is just diluted, but when it is repeatedly diluted and shaken hard."

Scientific claptrap in afraid. There is no such procedure where something can be "Potentized" (?) by making it weaker.

The Homeopathic Hosp may be cheap. If I opened a hospital and handed out sugar pills I daresay it would be as cheap. It says nothing about its effectiveness.

Drugs are expensive to produce because of the demands placed on producers for effective, safe medicines and the hoops they must go through to prove it. Do homeopathists exist without being paid and earning a living? If you could show the effectiveness of homeopathic treatments then why do we need any drugs at all?

"Health is not an absence of drugs." True to some extent but effective medicines work with the body's chemistry to fight the infection or virus or whatever is the cause.

You have homeopathy in the emergency room, I'll have effective treatment

Sean, Edinburgh, UK

"the fact is homoeopathy works" DR AJAY KUMAR
This is "fact" in the "wishful-thinking, with no supporting data and in direct contraditcion to medical evidence" sense of the word.

And it does do harm if taken instead of real medicine such as the documented cases of anti-malaria treatment and if it consumes resources that could be spent elsewhere.

Paul Millington, Reading, UK

It's disgusting that these charlatons are able to treat vunerable people with WATER, let alone that the NHS pays for it!

MLF, Notts, UK

Dear Sirs

Before you publish articles of this nature, may I suggest you get your research correct first, the picture shown is of a bottle Bach Flower Rescue which is NOT homeopathy.

Kind regards

Vanessa Rusted
Bach Flower Practitioner

Vanessa Rusted, Tunbridge Wells, UK

One can only hope the remaining Trusts follow suit as soon as possible. This dangerous quackery has no place being paid for by tax-payers.

Phil, Lancaster, UK

Mikey
A substance is 'potentised', as it is known, not when it is just diluted, but when it is repeatedly diluted and shaken hard.

There are some fairly good positive medical trials; not only that, the Royal Homoeopathic Hospital is apparently one of, if not the most cost-effective hospital in the NHS. Homoeopathy is very cheap to administer and worldwide used far more than Western medicine.

However, there is virtually no money available to test it, because no-one can patent homoeopathic medicines, unlike Western drugs which cost a fortune to test and take a long time to bring to market and have massive and rich pharmaceutical companies behind them. The absence of proof is not the same as saying something doesn't work.

Health is not due to an absence of drugs. Homoeopathy works by stimulating the body to throw off an illness. It doesn't always work, but neither does any form of medicine. It is a cheap, safe and often effective method which should have its place within the NHS.

Jack Raymond, London, England

As a private homeopathy practitioner I could be celebrating this piece of news as it will potentially mean more patients seeking my services but I am not because as a firm believer in the NHS and the principles of equity and solidarity on which it is based it means patients who cannot afford private treatment will no longer be able to access it. There is abundant evidence that homeopathy is effective and if the public debate that Pulse Editor Richard Hoey quite rightly calls for is held it will be made available.
Meanwhile readers can go to the following site to see what homeopaths and other CAM practitioners can offer in the NHS.
http://www.impact-imp.co.uk/

Stephen Gordon, Norwich, UK

Precisely right Mikey from Bromley.

Thus tap water which is free (at least in this country) most surely be the ultimate panacea!

Caroline, London,

Homoeopathy works - but then so does a placebo (an identical pill but with nothing but neutral ingredients).
It's time these quack practices were outlawed - not given NHS money.

GJB, Slough, Berkshire

What I have never understood about Homoeopathy is this:

If it works no matter how much the original tincture is diluted, then surely rainwater - which is composed of water molecules that at some point have had contact with every imaginable element on earth - should cure all ills.

It doesn't seem to: Thoughts?

Mikey, Bromley, Kent

Many people may be surprised to learn that in large well designed clinical trials, homeopathy is ineffective. The argument that it is cheaper than evidence based medicine is irrelevant when the treatment does not work. Let's hope that the remaining 37 per cent of the primary health trusts follow the lead of the others.

Acleron, Epsom,

It will be interesting to see how the new homoeopathy watchdog, OfQuack or 'the Natural Healthcare Council,' will work.

I can't foresee a voluntary scheme for snake-oil merchants getting many takers.

Pete Moss, Reading, UK

the fact is homoeopathy works ,and work when aiiopathy fails ,so why such a debate on its working ability at least it does,nt harm you if some times it does,nt work.it is so low in cost as compare to allopathy which is beyond reach for poor people in many asian country.

DR AJAY KUMAR, ghaziabad, india/uttar pradesh