One of the world’s top alternative health experts has called on the Scottish Government to safeguard the future of Scotland’s only homeopathic hospital.

Dr Jan de Vries said removing funds from the Glasgow institution would take away the public’s right to make their own choice on healthcare.

As reported in last night’s Evening Times, MPs on the Commons Science and Technology Committee have said public money should no longer be spent on homeopathy.

The committee said the idea behind homeopathy – treating the patient with highly diluted substances to trigger the body’s natural system of healing – was implausible and the remedies performed no better than placebos.

While the Scottish Govern­ment has said the hospital will continue to receive funding, the conclusions of the committee have placed publicly funded homeopathy across the UK under threat.

However, Dr de Vries, who has treated royalty and celebrities, believes the recommendations are part of a long-term strategy to remove complementary practitioners from the healthcare market.

Dr de Vries, who runs private clinics across the UK including his ‘hub’ at Troon, said many of his private patients had also been treated at the Glasgow Homeopathic Hospital with positive results and spoke of his admiration for the hospital’s lead practitioner, Dr David Reilly.

He said: “It is taking away the freedom of choice from the public. It’s just a question of economics and the powers that be who want us off the market.

“I have many clients who have been treated there. I know Dr Reilly and it is only good comments I hear. There was a 10-year study carried out at the University of Utrecht in Holland looking at the efficacy of homeopathy which showed that even in the lowest potency, when mixed with saliva, cells begin to change. I have been a practitioner for 50 years and have seen too much evidence.”

Patients come from all over the UK and beyond to be treated at Glasgow Homeopathic Hospital including the Lothians, the Borders, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man.

First opened in 1914, the hospital moved from a rundown Victorian mansion in Great Western Road to a former industrial site at Gartnavel in 1999 and receives about £1 million each year in government funding.

Advocates of complementary medicine point out that it costs the NHS about £4m each year to treat the side effects of conventional medicines.

About 10,000 consultations are carried out each year at the hospital and it takes referrals from The Beatson Institute for Cancer Research.

In recent years, the hospital has also been known as the Centre for Integrated Care to reflect the holistic approach it offers. Treatments are tailor-made for patients, and are usually a combination of counselling, physiotherapy, diet and alternative therapies such as acupuncture, meditation and homeopathy.

It is not the first time that the homeopathic hospital has faced a funding threat.

It emerged in May 2004 that Greater Glasgow Health Board was considering cutting the hospital’s 15 overnight beds.

A massive campaign to save the hospital was launched, backed by the Evening Times, and a petition with 22,000 names was handed over before the board bowed to public pressure.

While the debate continues over the merits of homeopathic medicine, the future for the hospital, in the short term, appears to be safe.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde have confirmed that it will continue to fund services at the hospital. A spokeswoman for the Scottish Government said that it recognises that complementary therapies offered relief to some patients.

Dr Bob Leckridge, a lead practitioner at the hospital, said: “We are not a cancer service, and none of our treatments are about removing diseases. They are about trying to improve quality of life, improve resilience and help energy.

“I think someone needs to do that job. We need an aspect of care on the NHS that addresses vitality and wellbeing.”

CASE STUDY: BRIAN McALORUM

Former Homeopathic Hospital patient Brian McAlorum, who has a degenerative spinal condition, says the unit’s approach “saved his life”.

Before he was treated at the hospital the 41-year-old from Wishaw says the pain of living with Scheuermann’s disease had almost driven him to take his own life.

He said: “I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the care I received at the hospital.

“I was in chronic pain and having suicidal thoughts.

“People talk about complementary medicine as if it is just one thing, but it has many different components.

“I had exhausted every conventional approach.

“When I went into the hospital I was on pethidine, diazepam and anti-depressants.

“Dr Reilly taught me how to manage my pain and to take responsibility for my own health.

“I’m still suffering pain but I am not in distress anymore.

“The mind is such a powerful tool and I now have the tools to manage my illness”