British Homeopathic Association

British Homeopathic Association (BHA) is a British charity founded in 1902 by John Epps to promote the pseudoscience homeopathy and advocate for its training and research. The BHA seeks to encourage the use of homeopathy within general and specialist healthcare and provides a listing of homeopathic practitioners. From 1902, the BHA co-sponsored the Missionary School of Medicine, a school of medicine for medical missionaries. The charity also campaigns for more homeopathy in Britain's National Health Service (NHS).[1]

Homeopathy is a form of alternative medicine in which quack practitioners claim to treat patients using highly diluted[2][3] preparations that they baselessly claim to cause healthy people to exhibit symptoms that are similar to those exhibited by the patient.

The BHA has been accused of misrepresenting evidence submitted to the House Of Commons Evidence Check On Homeopathy.[4] Analysis of the evidence submitted by the British Homeopathic Association contains many examples of quote mining, where the conclusions of scientific papers were selectively quoted to make them appear to support the efficacy of homeopathic treatment. For example, one paper's conclusion was reported as "There is some evidence that homeopathic treatments are more effective than placebo" without the immediately following caveat "however, the strength of this evidence is low because of the low methodological quality of the trials. Studies of high methodological quality were more likely to be negative than the lower quality studies."[4][5]

NHS England's public consultation in July 2017 "to drive out wasteful and ineffective drug prescriptions"[6] resulted in the recommendation, in November 2017, that GPs should stop prescribing homeopathy to patients. The BHA "believed it had identified serious flaws"[7] in the consultation's process and sought a judicial review, crowdfunding donations from supporters to support the legal action.[8] In May 2018, Mr Justice Supperstone heard the case at the Royal Courts of Justice, London[9] and, in June, he upheld NHS England's original decision to cease funding homeopathy.[10] NHS England announced its intention to "reclaim £120,000 in legal costs"[11] from the BHA, arguing "that taxpayers should not pick up the tab for “tap water masquerading as medicine”".

In May 2019, the charity changed its name to Homeopathy UK (though continues to be known by both names).[12][13]

See also

References
  1. Kayne, Steven B. (2006). Homeopathic pharmacy: theory and practice. Elsevier Health Sciences. pp. 62–63. ISBN 978-0-443-10160-1.
  2. Ernst, E. (2002), "A systematic review of systematic reviews of homeopathy", British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 54 (6): 577–82, doi:10.1046/j.1365-2125.2002.01699.x, PMC 1874503, PMID 12492603
  3. UK Parliamentary Committee Science and Technology Committee - "Evidence Check 2: Homeopathy"
  4. Robbins, Martin (2010-02-04). "Homeopathic association misrepresented evidence to MPs | Martin Robbins | Science | guardian.co.uk". Guardian. Retrieved 2012-08-18.
  5. My Response to the British Homeopathic Association, Martin Robbins, The Lay Scientist, February 9, 2010
  6. "NHS England launches action plan to drive out wasteful and ineffective drug prescriptions, saving NHS over £190 million a year". NHS England. 21 July 2017. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  7. "BHA's brave legal bid to overturn NHS decision on homeopathy fails". British Homeopathic Association. 5 June 2018. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  8. "Judicial review sought against NHS England". British Homeopathic Association. 6 November 2017. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  9. "Judge considers BHA challenge to NHS homeopathy 'ban'". Society of Homeopaths. 11 May 2018. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  10. "High Court backs NHS decision to stop funding homeopathy". The Telegraph. 5 June 2018. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  11. "NHS demands legal costs from failed homeopathy challenge". The Times. 31 July 2018. Retrieved 4 August 2018.
  12. "Homeopathy UK - Overview". Companies House. Retrieved 19 July 2019.
  13. "Homeopathy UK". The Charity Commission. Retrieved 19 July 2019.


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