The NHS could save money by embracing alternative and complementary medicine. This is the conclusion of a Kings Fund report. The Prince of Wales, a champion of alternative medicine, encouraged the setting up of the study, which describes the benefits of using these other forms of medicine in the NHS and of teaching them in medical schools.Prince Charles, speaking at the launch of the report Integrated Healthcare: A Way Forward for the Next Five Years? explained his initiative on integrated healthcare and outlined the contribution that complementary and alternative medicine could make to more patient-centred healthcare. He set this against a background where more and more people are turning to homeopathy, herbal medicine, acupuncture, osteopathy, and other therapies. He believed that this use of other forms of medicine in a reaction to an increasingly impersonal approach to healthcare and to the development of ever more powerful drugs.

Read more on Complementary medicine could reduce NHS costs…