A group of leading British doctors called today for the NHS to stop using “unproven” complementary treatments such as homeopathy, sparking complaints of “medical apartheid” by proponents of the therapies.

Link: Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Top doctors accused of ‘medical apartheid’

It’s reported that ‘groups representing complementary practitioners reacted angrily’ to the call for an end to funding for unproven alternative therapies, but then they would, wouldn’t they?

The doctors’ have been prompted to write to every hospital and health trust in the country in response to Prince Charles’s appeal to the World Health Organisation today, to back a ‘more holistic approach’ and not rely on conventional medicine. The royal family has been resorting to homeopathy for years. It’s based on the placebo effect, and is not proven. Homeopathic medicines are just water, though homeopaths claim that the water retains a ‘memory’ of whatever substance was diluted in it to begin with.

Prince Charles, the snake oil salesman?