Andy L – Page 6 – The Quackometer Blog

Maurice Saatchi’s Zombie Quack Bill To Be Rushed Through Parliament.

29th May, 2015 3

Lord Saatchi’s so-called “Medical Innovation Bill” which has the aim of removing patient right’s to sue doctors if they use unproven treatments in ways that no responsible body would endorse was blocked from proceding through parliament during the last session. It now looks like Saatchi intends to try to rush it through again as a reintroduced Private Member’s Bill. The Bill has been listed on the House of Lords schedule [read more…]

Big Legal Blow for NHS Homeopathy

13th April, 2015 30

That the NHS spends money on homeopathy is a red flag to many thinking people. If the publicly funded health service is to operare efficiently and fairly, how is it that it can spend money on this egregious quackery? Furthermore, how can campaigns to stop homeopaths exporting their dangerous ideas to people with HIV, Ebola and malaria in African countries counter the claim that ‘the UK government supports homeopathy by [read more…]

The Professional Standards Authority is a Threat to Public Health

12th March, 2015 24

The Professional Standards Authority has published a report about how it has performed with its Accredited Registers Programme. This scheme has been trying to provide some sort of quality stamp for the registering bodies of various non-statutorily regulated health workers. It has been criticised for rubber stamping organisations who promote quackery, such as homeopathy and acupuncture. Their press release today says that it now has 63,000 ‘underused’ registered health care [read more…]

How to Get Bad Law That Nobody Supports Through Parliament

27th January, 2015 11

Let us imagine an ex-advertising man called Lord Scratchy. After, his old PR firm, Itchy and Scratchy helped the Tory party win elections, he has now been given a seat in the House of Lords. Still working in PR, with many large American Breweries using his skills, he now introduces a Private Members’ Bill into the Lords which he calls the Free Beer Bill. In newspapers, he says that he [read more…]

Medical Innovation or Quackery?

12th December, 2014 19

One of the common marketing messages behind alternative medicine is that is represents true innovation in healthcare. Using one Prince Charles’ favourite words, it tries to offer “integrative” services by combining the best of ‘Western’, or orthodox, medicine with ancient traditions, Eastern practices and New Age ways of knowing. Doctors, in this thinking, are portrayed as hamstrung by their conventional medical training or, even worse, beholden to their imagined paymasters [read more…]

Nutritional Therapists Call for Equal Statutory Footing with Dieticians.

2nd December, 2014 31

In a surprise move, the British Association for Applied Nutrition & Nutritional Therapy (BANT) have formally written to the Health & Care Professions Council (HCPC) requesting that the register of dietitians is modified to allow for the entry of nutritional therapists. This would give Nutritional Therapists equal statutory footing to Dieticians and give them all the privileges and protections that only Dieticians currently have. In a notice to their members, BANT says, [read more…]

Soil Association Trustees Resign over Homeopathy Attacks

29th November, 2014 13

The Soil Association is the marketing organisation behind so-called Organic Farming. It’s stated aims are to campaign for “healthy, humane and sustainable food, farming and land use.” However, it is routinely criticised for embracing pseudoscientific and dogmatic ideas about farming and animal welfare. Matters have now come to a head as four Trustees resigned from the Soil Association earlier in the month. In a blog post, one of them (Joanna [read more…]

Have Homeopaths Reached Peak Stupid?

21st November, 2014 243

Remove hot drinks and sharp objects from your immediate vicinity. Across the world, homeopaths today are trying to ‘heal the oceans’. To do so, British homeopath, Grace DaSilva-Hill, has been writing to appeal to other homeopaths to drop some homeopathic remedies into the sea. She tells homeopaths that those not close to the sea can instead drop their remedies into a river. If even this is too challenging, then Grace advises [read more…]

Society Warns Homeopaths not to Talk About Ebola.

17th October, 2014 27

This blog believes that accredting the Society of Homeopaths was a mistake by the PSA. However, I can accept that some benefits may come of it. One is that the Society now needs to watch very closely its public profile – even more than before. So, on a public homeopathy discussion board discussion board, this email gets slipped out… Information about Ebola Dear xxx The Society shares the global concern [read more…]

Homeopath Finds a Cure for Ebola: Violin Music

9th October, 2014 78

Peter Chappell has previous form. I wrote in 2007 how he was creating MP3 files that he claimed could treat Malaria and HIV. The Society of Homeopaths held a symposium to discuss his ideas. Chappell now has a new web site: http://boosters4africa.com/. On this site he is promoting a new MP3 file that plays some violin music. He claims that listening to these files can treat and prevent ebola. If you [read more…]