Patients have a fundamental right to patient-centred healthcare that respects their needs, preferences and values. Although most EU countries have made statements about the importance of patients’ views and needs when planning health care, when it comes to homeopathy, sadly little or no provision is made.

Patients using homeopathy can be divided into three groups:

• Patients with chronic health conditions that have not responded to conventional treatments or who have experienced unacceptable side effects and who seek help and a better quality of life, eventually finding relief by seeking other means of dealing with their health problems
   
• Those who come to homeopathy as a result of a magazine article or a chance conversation and thereby find something they have been seeking all their lives
   
• Those whose families have always made that choice and have used it successfully for several generations; this group is often overlooked as they are usually healthy people who do not weigh heavily on their health care provider.

Contact with a homeopathic practitioner leads a patient to a better understanding of basic health and how to maintain it and invariably to positive changes in diet and lifestyle; therefore the long-term gain is enormous. The patient experiences better health overall and ceases to be a drain on the health care system.

Unfortunately, the availability of both the treatment and the medicines vary enormously throughout the EU. While the treatment is widely available in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands, by contrast, doctors are not allowed to practice homeopathy in Sweden and Slovenia and those that do, risk losing their medical licence. This situation is not acceptable in 2010 - homeopathy should be fully integrated into EU health care.

Implementation of the laws and regulations governing the availability of homeopathic medicines in the EU varies between Member States, causing unacceptable problems for doctors and patients alike. Successful treatment with homeopathy requires access to a full range of the products. For example, while there are approximately 3500 medicines listed, only 500 are available in the Netherlands. Better regulation and greater harmonisation are desperately needed so that all EU citizens have access to the full range no matter where they are in Europe.

In many EU Member States, reimbursement for the cost of homeopathic treatment and medicines is a burning issue. Uniquely, homeopathy has been part of the National Health Service in the UK since the service was set up in 1948, meaning that the treatment is in theory free at source; however patients often find it extremely difficult to get a referral from their General Practitioner and to access their treatment.

Despite the fact that all EU citizens contribute in some form or other to social security for their health care, choice of treatment is often denied, particularly if they want to choose homeopathy as all or part of their health care. Patients require a responsive health service which provides suitable choices in treatment and management options to fit their needs. For example, homeopathy can be very supportive to patients undergoing chemotherapy as it helps reduce the unpleasant side effects and mitigates the fear and emotional turmoil that the diagnosis of cancer invariably brings. Homeopathy’s holistic approach to treatment focuses on the emotional and spiritual well-being of the patient as well as on the physical condition, thereby empowering the patient to work towards health and healing.

If the EU wants to deliver high quality care at all levels, not merely technological and pharmaceutical, an effective, safe, patient-oriented system of health care is needed. Merely adding additional therapies to the existing system of care without implementing a holistic approach to the treatment of patients will do little to improve the health of EU citizens. A fundamental, grass roots appraisal leading to complete integration is necessary.

Enid Segall
President, European Federation of Homeopathic Patients Associations (EFHPA)