Prince Charles officially re-opened the Royal London HomoeopathicHospital in October, following its refurbishment. The Princetoured the hospital, meeting staff, patients and the volunteersfrom the League of Friends who run the Snack bar daily. ThePrince unveiled a replica of the hospital’s Coat-of-Arms in mosaicto applause from the Mayor, the local MP, officials of UniversityCollege Hospital London together with friends and supporters ofhomeopathy who gathered in what used to be the Board Room butis now destined to be an information centre on CAM.Referring gently to the negative press homeopathy hasreceived recently, the Prince said that he understood how we feltand that he often did not read the papers in order to protect hishealth.
Royal London Homeopathic Hospital re-opened
Additional British Royal support for homeopathy was also shownin October by the annoucement that HRH Princess Alexandra hasgraciously agreed to become President of the Blackie FoundationTrust, a charity set up by the late Dr Margery Blackie, which supportsresearch and education in homeopathy. The announcement wasmade at meeting of supporters of the BFT who gathered together for the first showing of the film tracing the life of Dr Blackie and her contribution to medicine and homeopathy. Last year the Princessunveiled a blue plaque on what used to be Dr Blackie’s home andpractice at number 18 Thurloe Street.The Blackie Foundation Trust has commissioned a film showingaspects of Dr Blackie’s life and the unveiling of the blue plaque. Thefilm will be on sale shortly in both VHS and DVD format.For further details go the the websitewww.blackieft.org
The refurbished London Royal Homeopathic Hospital
London research conference 26/27 January 2005
The 5
th
conference ‘Improving the Success of Homeopathy 5’ willtake a global view of homeopathy, both in a geographical sense, andin the sense of taking an all round look at the possibilities.This conference is inspired by the World Health Organisation’s(WHO) forthcoming report on clinical research in homeopathy. Itsmain objective is to explore homeopathy’s potential to contribute tothe health and well-being of the world’s people and how research canbe advanced through international collaboration. But we interpret‘global’ broadly: we will look at homeopathy globally, includingits potential outside human medicine, including animal husbandryand horticulture. The WHO’s report is likely to stimulate nationalgovernments and international bodies to adopt policies which willdefine the role of homeopathy in the 21st century and to act as acatalyst on the global expansion of homeopathy.The aims of the conference are to explore homeopathy’s potentialto contribute to the health and well-being of the world’s peopleand the implications for research; to review possible applicationsof homeopathy outside human medicine, including agriculture andto bring together scientists and opinion leaders and representativesfrom around the world, including countries where homeopathy iswell established, incorporated in public health systems or the subjectof academic or legislative initiatives.The programme will be organised into plenary, roundtablediscussion, smaller workshop sessions and poster sessions. There willbe ample time for discussion to encourage participation, debate andconvergence of views.For more details please go to the conference website:www.rlhh.org.uk/conference
Prince’s report urges CAM on the NHS
A report commissioned by the Prince of Wales has found thatcomplementary medicine should be more widely available on theNHS, as it benefits both the nation’s health and economy.The study concluded that people suffering from chronic conditionssuch as back pain, anxiety and depression could benefit fromtherapies such as osteopathy, chiropractic, acupuncture, homeopathyand herbal medicine. Patients treated with complementary medicinessaw a 30 per cent drop in the number of consultations with GPs anda saving in prescription drug bills of 50 per cent.Christopher Smallwood, who led the study, said that an increaseduse of complementary medicine would mean people get back towork quicker, leading to more tax revenue. He stated that: “Theweight of evidence we have examined suggests that complementaryand alternative medicines could play a much larger role in thedelivery of health care and help to fill recognised effectiveness gapsin healthcare provision.”The Prince of Wales has long been a supporter of complementarytherapies, setting up the Prince of Wales’s Foundation for IntegratedHealth to provide medical treatment linked to complementarytherapies. Clarence House welcomed the findings of the report. “By(continued on next page)
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