Protecting Patient Choice

#ReleaseTheFirstReport campaign builds upon the award-winning Your Health Your Choice campaign. This campaign has been a resounding success, giving consumers a voice which is helping to protect access to Complementary and Alternative Medicines in Australia. Your Health Your Choice has raised awareness of NHMRC’s flawed 2015 report on Homeopathy and their website hosts a petition calling on the Australian Government to hold NHMRC accountable via a Senate enquiry.

Signing the #ReleaseTheFirstReport petition will remind the Australian Government that it is not just Australian consumers who are being affected by their Homeopathy report – it is affecting people all over the world.

That’s why we are saying, “enough is enough”. It is time for NHMRC to be held accountable for their scientific misconduct and it is time for NHMRC to release the first report.

Saving Homeopathy and Patient Choice: Why your signature matters

Politically, numbers count. And patient choice has become a political issue.

Homeopathy has been used for centuries, yet in 2018 there is intense lobbying by a small number of well-connected people e.g. members of Friends of Science in Medicine, who have been clear about their aim to remove homeopathy as a primary health care option. 

Nobody is forcing anyone to use complementary medicines. Yet these individuals are working tirelessly – both politically and in the media – to stop other people having access to the medicines and treatments they value and they wish to use.

Why these ‘skeptics’ feel they have the right to do this is a complete mystery, but their goal is clear. There should be no medicines available other than conventional pharmaceutical medicines, despite the risks often associated with that approach.

Under this pressure, the fight to save homeopathy has never been more urgent.

Remind Australia that they are out of step with other countries

The World Health Organisation (WHO) recognises homeopathy as the second most used medical system in the world. Scientific research from Switzerland concluded that it is an “effective, appropriate and cost-effective” solution and globally, it is used by more than 200 million people.

Over 100 million European citizens use over-the-counter or prescribed homeopathic medicines, while in the UK 10% of the population use homeopathy – an estimated 6 million people. 

In India, there are more than 200,000 homeopathic doctors, and homeopathic treatment is fully integrated into mainstream healthcare, alongside conventional medicine.

The Swiss have successfully fought to protect their right to access homeopathic treatment with the Swiss Government granting homeopathy and complementary medicine equal status with conventional medicine. In the same year that the Swiss released a landmark report concluding homeopathy is clinically effective (2012), Australia’s NHMRC was working on the Australian Report that health authorities are now using to restrict access to homeopathy.

Patients have a right to choose treatments which work for them – NHMRC’s flagrant disregard for scientific protocol in this review sets an alarming precedent for decision-making in healthcare.

Demand that NHMRC RELEASE THE FIRST REPORT.