Magic or Medicine - Homeopathy and the NHS (Part 2 of 2)

So, if there’s nothing detectable

in the pills,

and clinical trials don’t show any effect,

why would people keep taking
homeopathic medicines;

and critics ask, why should the
Scottish NHS keep paying for them?

This is the Glasgow Homeopathic Hospital,

a two-and-a-half million pound,
NHS funded building.

I met two patients.

Janice’s suffered from chronic bone pain
for fifteen years,

and Allison was diagnosed with MS
fourteen years ago.

They’re typical of patients here:

people with long-term,

chronic, and debilitating illnesses.

Patients referred to the hospital

start with a homeopathic consultation -

an hour long discussion,

completely unlike a mainstream
medical consultation.

“We spoke for an hour,

he didn’t examine me,

he didn’t necessarily ask me
about my pain,

you know, singularly;

and he spoke to me as a person,
holistically.”

“I said to him at the end,

as I was leaving I said,

how do you think I’m doing?

He says: I think you’re doing very well.

And that was all I needed.

That was great.”

“He got me, and how fourteen years down
the line I felt for the,

really for the first time that

I could understand what was happening
to me.