(2) if she will estimate how much the NHS has spent on providing complementary medicine to patients in each year since 1997;
(3) what guidelines are issued to general practitioners concerning referrals to complementary medicine practitioners; and whether there are requirements for the effectiveness of complementary therapies to be scientifically substantiated.
The Government consider that decision making on individual clinical interventions, using either complementary or more orthodox treatments, is a matter for local national health service providers and practitioners. There are therefore no centrally held records on what complementary medicines are provided by the NHS or how much is spent on their provision.
When making any clinical decision, general practitioners are expected to consider safety and effectiveness. In 2000, the Department produced an information pack for both primary care groups and primary care clinicians to provide a basic source of reference on complementary medicine and to support individual clinical judgment.
Over 75 per cent. of the Department’s total expenditure on health research is devolved to and managed by national health service organisations. Details of individual projects, including a number concerned with complementary medicine, are available on the national research register at www.dh.gov.uk/research The register contains no record of NHS-funded research on how cost-effective complementary medicine is.