Tredinnick: Follow Europe’s example and look to complementary medicine to help NHS

WP_Post Object
(
    [ID] => 16138
    [post_author] => 1367
    [post_date] => 2018-12-17 13:17:25
    [post_date_gmt] => 2018-12-17 12:17:25
    [post_content] => David Tredinnick MP has called on ministers to follow the example of European governments and explore how complementary, traditional and natural medicine may help to ease the mounting burden on national health services.

Mr Tredinnick said that the current approach being taken by the Government was "unsustainable" for the long-term future of the country and that the rise of multi-morbidity - people suffering two or more chronic health problems and taking a range of drugs - was a particular problem which non-traditional approaches could help to address.

“Multi-morbidity is more apparent now in the UK than at any time in our recent history. As a trend it threatens to swamp a struggling NHS, but the good news is that many self-limiting conditions can be treated at home with the most minimal of expert intervention," he said.

“Other European governments facing similar challenges have considered the benefits of exploring complementary, traditional and natural medicines. If we are to hand on our most invaluable institution to future generations, so should we.”

Mr Tredinnick, Conservative MP for Bosworth and a long-time champion of homeopathy and complementary medicine, was speaking at the launch at the House of Commons of a report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Integrated Healthcare which highlights the threat that caring for people with complex needs poses to the future of the NHS and calls for wider use of alternative therapies to help ease the burden.

It urges the Government to devise a strategy to "arrest the trend of over-medicating the population" and to make treating patients "as whole persons, with individual needs, rather than with a variety of illnesses treated separately" a central tenet of the strategy with greater use of natural, traditional and complementary therapies.

It also points to the "huge under-utilised resource of therapists" who could work in collaboration with conventional medicine to improve patient outcomes and ease the burden on the NHS.

Welcoming the report, the Society of Homeopaths said the case for using homeopathy and complementary medicine to supplement the care provided by the NHS in the UK was growing ever stronger.

"More and more people are recognising that wellbeing, physical and mental, rather than simply illness, should be the focus of healthcare and that homeopathy has a key part to play in helping people to stay healthy," said Mark Taylor, Chief Executive. "There is also a financial case to be made here in that, as the report says, the current burden on the NHS is unsustainable and drawing on alternative forms of medicine could help to alleviate that pressure."
    [post_title] => Tredinnick: Follow Europe's example and look to complementary medicine to help NHS
    [post_excerpt] => 
    [post_status] => publish
    [comment_status] => open
    [ping_status] => open
    [post_password] => 
    [post_name] => tredinnick-follow-europes-example-and-look-to-complementary-medicine-to-help-nhs
    [to_ping] => 
    [pinged] => 
    [post_modified] => 2018-12-28 10:18:23
    [post_modified_gmt] => 2018-12-28 09:18:23
    [post_content_filtered] => 
    [post_parent] => 0
    [guid] => https://homeopathy-soh.org/?p=16138
    [menu_order] => 0
    [post_type] => post
    [post_mime_type] => 
    [comment_count] => 0
    [filter] => raw
)

David Tredinnick MP has called on ministers to follow the example of European governments and explore how complementary, traditional and natural medicine may help to ease the mounting burden on national health services.

Mr Tredinnick said that the current approach being taken by the Government was “unsustainable” for the long-term future of the country and that the rise of multi-morbidity – people suffering two or more chronic health problems and taking a range of drugs – was a particular problem which non-traditional approaches could help to address.

“Multi-morbidity is more apparent now in the UK than at any time in our recent history. As a trend it threatens to swamp a struggling NHS, but the good news is that many self-limiting conditions can be treated at home with the most minimal of expert intervention,” he said.

“Other European governments facing similar challenges have considered the benefits of exploring complementary, traditional and natural medicines. If we are to hand on our most invaluable institution to future generations, so should we.”

Mr Tredinnick, Conservative MP for Bosworth and a long-time champion of homeopathy and complementary medicine, was speaking at the launch at the House of Commons of a report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Integrated Healthcare which highlights the threat that caring for people with complex needs poses to the future of the NHS and calls for wider use of alternative therapies to help ease the burden.

It urges the Government to devise a strategy to “arrest the trend of over-medicating the population” and to make treating patients “as whole persons, with individual needs, rather than with a variety of illnesses treated separately” a central tenet of the strategy with greater use of natural, traditional and complementary therapies.

It also points to the “huge under-utilised resource of therapists” who could work in collaboration with conventional medicine to improve patient outcomes and ease the burden on the NHS.

Welcoming the report, the Society of Homeopaths said the case for using homeopathy and complementary medicine to supplement the care provided by the NHS in the UK was growing ever stronger.

“More and more people are recognising that wellbeing, physical and mental, rather than simply illness, should be the focus of healthcare and that homeopathy has a key part to play in helping people to stay healthy,” said Mark Taylor, Chief Executive. “There is also a financial case to be made here in that, as the report says, the current burden on the NHS is unsustainable and drawing on alternative forms of medicine could help to alleviate that pressure.”

Share this page