PRINCE CHARLES has angered medical traditionalists by launching a campaign encouraging GPs to prescribe more “alternative” treatments to NHS patients.

The Prince of Wales’s Foundation for Integrated Health hopes to have signed up 150 GPs to the new and controversial scheme by October. Those who join will become “associates” of the foundation and are expected to offer a wide range of herbal and other alternative treatments to their patients.

Last year the prince called for research into coffee enemas and carrot juice as cancer treatments.

Doctors are divided on the project. Some say it could make a valuable contribution while others accuse the prince of attempted brainwashing.

Mike Dixon, a trustee of the foundation who is also chairman of the NHS Alliance, a national body of GPs, is spearheading recruitment and is thought to have signed up more than 60 family doctors so far.

“We want GPs to realise if a patient has a frozen shoulder you can go down the traditional route and give them a tablet, give them physiotherapy or send them to a surgeon,” he said. “Alternatively, devil’s claw (a shrub found in the Kalahari desert) and acupuncture are also proven to work.”

However, Edzard Ernst, professor of complementary medicine at Exeter University, said: “There is considerable danger in this initiative.

“The information the foundation puts out is dangerous and misleading. If it enters the realm of general practice it seems to me more like an attempt to brainwash GPs and patients.”

This is not the first time Charles has been attacked for his support of alternative medicine. Last year Michael Baum, emeritus professor of surgery at University College London, said the prince had “simply got it wrong” over coffee enemas and carrot juice as a possible cure for cancer.

The royal family has a tradition of trying alternative treatments. The Queen is reported to be a devotee of homeopathic medicine and the Duke of Edinburgh to have worn a copper band to counter arthritis. The Princess Royal uses arnica, a yellow-flowering herb, to soothe bruises.

Ernst, who researches the efficacy, safety and cost of complementary medicine, was particularly critical of recently published advice from the foundation for failing to distinguish between effective and useless treatments.

“There is not a shred of evidence to clinically support using spiritual healing, craniosacral therapy (head massage) or acupuncture to stop smoking,” said Ernst.

He added: “This touch of royal support does complementary medicine no favours when we have a unique opportunity to place it on an evidence-based footing.”

However, Simon Williams, policy director of the Patients Association, said: “We should be providing proven complementary treatments. People are now looking for alternatives to pills and they are more aware of the alternative out there.”

A spokesman for the foundation said: “We believe that in time, by unifying like-minded doctors who want to integrate complementary healthcare into their practices, a wider range of treatments will be available to patients across the country.”

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