As patients we do not experience healthcare in neat professional categories. We do not necessarily separate our lives into ‘NHS care’, ‘private care’, ‘self-care’, ‘wellbeing support’ and ‘complementary healthcare’. Many of us use several forms of support at the same time.

We may see a GP, take prescribed medication, visit a physiotherapist, consult a nutritional therapist, use homeopathy, practise mindfulness and seek advice from a pharmacist. That is the reality of modern patient behaviour.

You may have heard that the UK Government is currently moving towards modernising healthcare professional regulation claiming the existing UK model of professional regulation is seen as too rigid and complex, and that reform is needed to better protect the public, support health services and help the workforce meet future challenges.

International Membership organisation Homeopathy International (HINT) welcomes that direction of travel. A modern health system should be safer, more transparent, more responsive and more proportionate. However, HINT believes that reform must not be limited to the internal machinery of statutory regulation.

If the Government is serious about patient-centred care, informed consent, prevention, public protection and workforce flexibility, then it must also address the wider healthcare landscape in which patients actually make decisions.

The question, therefore, is not whether homeopathy exists outside the NHS. It clearly does. The real question is whether the healthcare system is willing to recognise that reality and create safer, more open and more accountable ways for patients, doctors and complementary practitioners to communicate.

Patients should be able to discuss homeopathy openly with their doctors, and doctors should not feel discouraged from having balanced, respectful conversations about complementary healthcare where it is relevant to patient choice, wellbeing, self-management or adjunctive support.

The Government’s direction of travel is towards modern, flexible and proportionate healthcare regulation. Homeopaths support that. But true modernisation must reflect how patients actually live, choose and seek support. Reform must not remain disconnected from real-world patient behaviour.

For a deeper dive into this subject, please go to the Homeopathy International website: https://hint.org.uk/uncategorized/patient-choice-and-the-nhs-why-the-direction-of-travel-must-include-homeopathy/