The Opposition is calling upon the Government to clarify its position on the funding of non-evidence based complementary therapies, and to state what eligibility criteria the Minister for Health employs when determining the therapies which will be subsidised by the GHA.

Following the Government’s recent announcement to provide NaPro (natural Procreation) Technology, the GSD is requesting that Health Minister Dr Cortes explains the Government’s policy to satisfy those individuals of moderate means who pay privately for other equally deserving complementary therapies. They also ask that Dr. Cortes unveils why the Government is subsidising some therapies and not others, including the use of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy, which annually cost around £200,000.

Shadow Minister for Health, Isobel Ellul-Hammond noted, ‘we are not against the funding of complementary therapies, but given that these are not generally available on the NHS nor approved by NICE, the Government must explain its policy on some objective basis so that users of other complementary therapies, and the tax-payer, knows where they stand.  Dr Cortes needs to justify the expenditure of the GHA budget and resource responsibly and objectively.  It is that sense of responsibility and objectivity that must underpin the principle of a free national health service which we all value’.