The following text is a guest contribution by the Bremen dentist Dr. Hans-Werner Bertelsen, who has already published several guest articles on science blogs.
“Homeopathy” – on and on and on?
Hans-Werner Bertelsen
“Homeopathy” stands for many things. It stands for superstition as well as for €soterik in a white coat. It stands for speaking medicine and lies, as well as for billions in sales and self-deception. Unfortunately, it also stands for missed therapy opportunities and infirmity. Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) already gave the reason for the low level of awareness of the latter facts: “But, as Nicocles says, physicians are fortunate that their successes are illuminated by the sun, but their mistakes are covered by the earth become. In addition, they know how to skilfully use all events for themselves, because they consider it a prerogative of medicine to count as its own success what fate, nature or other non-medical influences (the number of which is infinite) cause good and healing in us”. In Germany, an impressive number of profiteers has formed – not only “homeopaths” are happy about high financial benefits, if within the framework of the medical fee schedule, a good 180.00 € flow into the account instead of a lousy 4.36 €, provided that the medical Conversation is quite profanely linked with sugar balls. Pharmacists and manufacturers are also very happy when the sales of the embarrassing placebo industry add up to several hundred billion euros.
It’s been four years since a small but excellent medical association set out to put an end to this dangerous aberration. After the LÄK Bremen deleted “homeopathy” from the further training regulations (WBO) in 2019, other LÄK took this as a model and also deleted this sham therapy from their agenda. In the following years, the state medical associations of Saxony-Anhalt, North Rhine, Schleswig-Holstein, Baden-Württemberg, Hamburg, Hesse, Brandenburg, Berlin, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lower Saxony, Saarland and Bavaria followed the example of Bremen. The clarity of the state votes on the delimitation of “homeopathy” led to the deletion of this teaching in the model further training regulations (MWBO) at the Bremen Doctors’ Day in May 2022. It is all the more astonishing that the Bavarian LÄK, after clearly excluding “homeopathy”, is now keeping this teaching alive in advanced training courses. When asked by the ÄND, there is talk of “transition periods”. I ask myself: Can you continue to ventilate a life-threatening sham therapy that is bypassing indication-based therapies because individual lawyers are demanding this due to old and outdated contracts?
It seems bizarre when the Bavarian State Medical Association, despite its own decision to remove “homeopathy” from the WBO, now refers to extensions because of “transitional periods” and continues to offer courses for “homeopathy”. From my point of view, contracts in this regard are to be regarded as subordinate and also no longer up-to-date. The justification given at the request of the ÄND therefore proves to be flimsy and not stringent. The protection of patients from life-threatening sham therapies, in the event of cessation of indication-based therapies, saves lives and thus clearly represents the higher legal interest. Calls for “transitional periods” are superfluous and negligently endanger the health of many people. On top of that, an unnecessary extension shows disrespect for the decision made by one’s own members in the democratic process.
But I remain optimistic that the logical plausibility – free of residues (!) – will also prevail in Bavaria. The vote proved that there is a majority in favor of this and that this majority cannot be dominated by money or self-deception.
Supplementary links:
• https://www.dr-bertelsen.de/documents/Screenshot_2023-02-10_at_11-36-
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