Message from Irish Society of Homeopaths
BBC Health Website Deletes Complementary Medicine
Last week the controllers of BBC Health (www.bbc.co.uk/health), the health section on one of the most accessed websites in the world, decided to remove all coverage of complementary medicine!
They used to have substantial coverage with over 40 pages on this subject covering all the major therapies, their pros and cons, evidence for their effectiveness, how to find a qualified practitioner, etc. However the site has in recent months been sent a deluge of letters and emails claiming that complementary therapies such as homeopathy and cranial osteopathy should be removed. As a result large chunks of this part of the site were simply removed overnight and now, following recent cutbacks, it was decided that, rather than update this part of the site, it should simply be removed altogether!
It may seem incredible that a public service site this prominent can deem complementary medicine so insignificant that it no longer warrants any coverage other than the odd news story. This is despite the fact that complementary medicine is used favorably by a significant proportion of the population (recent surveys have estimated that around 1 in 5 Britons use it at some point or other) and that increasing numbers of people are now seeking to train in these therapies.
However, as the `quack busters' become more organised and active, evidence of the backlash against complementary medicine is appearing all over the place - such as the removal of PCT funding for homeopathy, the threatened closure of the homeopathic hospitals, many negative news stories in the press and so on. Rather than taking a reasoned view and considering the evidence from good research studies on complementary medicine some groups seem simply hell bent on trying to `stamp out' complementary medicine in any way possible.
The BBCi removal of complementary medicine coverage (which has been in place for almost 15 years!) is one example. If you believe information pages on it should be returned to BBCi, please, please take just a minute to express your views using their online comment form to make your view known
As a public service company they have to listen to your views so your email will make a difference. Apparently for all the many letters and emails that they received that were against complementary medicine they only received a handful in support. Therefore if you are in support please let them know so they may revise their thinking on this subject. Please act as soon as possible and pass on these details to anyone else you know who may also be willing to write in support of complementary medicine.
- Mary O'Meara Complementary & Alternative Medicine Researcher's Network (CAMRN) Research Council for Complementary Medicine The Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital, UCLH NHS Foundation Trust 60 Great Ormond Street London WC1 3HR
Email: camrn@rccm.org.uk
Website: www.rccm.org.uk
Forwarded by: Irish Society of Homeopaths 6 Suffolk St Dublin 2
T: 01 675 5177 E: info@irishhomeopathy.ie
W: www.irishhomeopathy.ie
HOW TO RESPOND TO THE COMPLAINT DEPARTMENT
This is a Five Step Process
- STEP ONE: Click Make an Official Complaint
- STEP TWO: CLICK BUTTON ON RIGHT HAND SIDE : BBCi (Interactive TV)
- STEP THREE: Enter your message
- SAMPLE RESPONSE: It is impossible for you to remove news about something as important as our health. 20% of the British people use alternative or complementary medicine and this is complete censorship to not cover something as essential to the wellbeing of so many people. I cannot imagine any other topic with so many people actively engaged at a primary level would not be taken seriously. It is one thing to not do something it is another thing to remove something that has been a service for so many years. I highly recommend that you reconsider and keep the internet site on Complementary Medicine.
- STEP FOUR: Enter your name and email details
- STEP FIVE: Submit
Phone: 08700 100 222 *
Textphone: 08700 100 212 *
Email: Send your complaint to Cymru: http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/make_complaint_cy.shtml
Write: BBC Complaints, PO Box 1922, Glasgow G2 3WT
WEBPAGE FOR BBC RESPONSE http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/news/2008/02/22/53034.shtmlBBC Health website - Complementary section disbanded
date: 22 Feb 2008
BBC's Response to Complaint
We received complaints about the Complementary section
of the BBC Health website being disbanded
The decision to remove the complementary medicine area of the health website was taken as part of a wider review of all the health content in order to enable the BBC to focus its efforts on creating new and exciting content. In order to release resources for this redevelopment work, we're reviewing existing content from an editorial and value-for-money perspective. The complementary health section was incomplete and, therefore, not of a satisfactory editorial standard. It also represented a small proportion of traffic to the site but was disproportionately time-consuming. Therefore, the decision to take it down was based on a combination of factors: how much work it needed to maintain to a high editorial standard, how much this cost and how popular it was with site users. We have already removed other sections of the health site and plan to reduce or remove others. We appreciate people are disappointed this area of the site has been removed and apologise if the decision has appeared abrupt to site users or inconvenienced other sites linking to BBC Health. The BBC will continue to cover complementary health in other areas of its output, such as TV, radio and news programmes, and may reassess its complementary health content in future.
BBC's General Comments and Feedback Form
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