Revealed: How GPs are STILL wasting thousands of pounds of NHS money on bogus homeopathy ‘cures’

GPs are still spending tens of thousands of euros each year on counterfeit homeopathic products, MailOnline can reveal.

NHS spending on quack medical treatment was effectively banned four years ago after it was found to be an inefficient use of taxpayers’ money.

But GPs in England still prescribed nearly £150,000 worth of homeopathic remedies since 2018 – the first full year after the ruling, an analysis shows.

GPs also spent £280 million of taxpayers’ money distributing paracetamol, despite the NHS urging GPs to send people to buy it from supermarkets for pennies instead.

Analysis shows GPs in England have prescribed homeopathic treatments worth a total of £138,249 since 2018 after NHS bosses banned taxpayer spending on bogus treatments

While homeopathy spending has generally fallen since the 2018 ban, the ban on GPs prescribing the common painkiller paracetamol and instead sending patients to the supermarket has remained largely the same, costing taxpayers in four countries £281 million each year .

GPs also spent tens of thousands on the distribution of normally illegal drugs, cocaine and ketamine, nearly £70,000 and £100,000 respectively.

While both cocaine and ketamine have legitimate medicinal uses, homeopathy spending comes at a time when NHS budgets are coming under increasing pressure.

Repeated scientific studies have shown that a 200-year-old “treatment” is no more effective than a placebo.

Homeopathy works on the logic that “like cures like”, so a remedy that is effective in causing certain symptoms can theoretically be used to treat similar conditions.

For example, a homeopath may recommend treatment with an onion solution for a hay fever patient with itchy and watery eyes, since cutting the vegetable causes the same reaction in humans.

But these so-called “remedies” are diluted with so much water that often little or nothing of the original substance remains.

Some treatments contain the diluted saliva of dogs with rabies or even the secretions from the urethra of men with gonorrhea, a sexually transmitted disease.

Despite the lack of scientific evidence supporting the treatments, some GPs in England still support them, prescribing £138,249 over the past four years.

Data from an NHS England-funded database called OpenPrescribe, run by the University of Oxford, which breaks down GP spending by item, runs through September and puts the total number of items issued at 7,402.

This equates to around £16.43 per course of homeopathic medicine.

The millions spent on the common and cheap painkiller paracetamol will also raise eyebrows.

NHS England banned GPs from prescribing a large number of commonly used medicines, including paracetamol, in 2018 after it was found the health service was spending around £3 per pack.

Instead, GPs were told to send patients to the supermarket where they could buy it for less than a pound.

The move was controversial at the time, as some medical professionals feared the policy would harm low-income patients.

But since the start of 2018, GPs have ordered 8 million paracetamol prescriptions, worth a total of £281 million.

That’s around £3.40 a pack, almost nine times the 39p per pack of 16 tablets charged by major supermarket Asda.

Other items included in the 2018 ban will also be regularly prescribed, with England’s GPs handing out £24m worth of sunscreen and £65m of plain cough syrup.

The NHS list of prohibited prescriptions was expanded in 2019 to also ban the supply of acne medication to spotty teenagers and its nightwear to those suffering from eczema.

But prescriptions for these items also continued, with £1.3m spent on acne medication and £2.3m on silk pyjamas.

Taxpayers’ Alliance chief executive John O’Connell said the NHS should crack down on spending on “quack science” and items that can be bought cheaper in a supermarket.

“This spending on quack science is insane,” he said.

“The continuation of such spending – albeit on a small scale – naturally raises questions about all areas of NHS spending and how well it is being done.

“The NHS needs to get serious and ensure that it ends the prescribing of routine over-the-counter and homeopathic medicines.”

But a spokesman for NHS England said it had already clamped down on these “substandard treatments” and spending was falling.

“The NHS has already phased out medicines and interventions that are of little value to both patients and taxpayers, such as homeopathic treatments, dietary supplements and herbal remedies, and the number of these prescribed products continues to decline,” they said.

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