Starting from the autumn of 2019 the Natural Practice will begin offering a charitable homeopathy clinic, running once a fortnight, in association with the British Homeopathic Association (BHA).
The BHA is a charity dedicated to the promotion of patient access to homeopathy and, in recent years, it has established a number of charitable clinics offering homeopathy at different sites in England. As a longstanding and well established complementary health clinic, the Natural Practice has offered to host a limited service offering homeopathy, as part of the BHA’s programme, to people who might not otherwise be able to afford a homeopathic appointment.
The charitable clinic will be supervised by the BHA and will build on both the BHA’s format which has been developed in its existing clinics and the experience of The Natural Practice that has been delivering local homeopathic services for thirty eight years. Information about the service, and about homeopathy in general, can be found through the BHA’s website: www.britishhomeopathic.org . People contacting the BHA, for whom this service might be suitable, will be directed to The Natural Practice to arrange an appointment. Patient records will be kept on the BHA’s secure clinical system and general data about the service will be kept and managed by the BHA as part of the ongoing development of their services. However, any use by the BHA of data collected will be strictly anonymous. It is possible that, once the service is established, student homeopaths may be taught in the clinic.
The service will be staffed by Dr Tim Foster. Tim was a GP in one of the Winchester practices until he retired in 2018. He has been a qualified homeopath since 2010 and joined the Natural Practice team in 2018. There will be some limitations on the service offered through the BHA clinic, in line with the policies at their other clinics. The number of possible follow-up appointments, after an initial consultation, will be limited. If a homeopathic remedy is recommended the prescription will be passed to a homeopathic pharmacy which will dispense the remedy to the patient directly. Any initial remedy will be provided free of charge, but if further remedies are recommended then patients will be charged the cost of the remedy.
The new service will be operating from the Natural Practice on a pilot basis and will be reviewed at intervals by both the Natural Practice and the BHA.
The service will not reproduce the wider service offered within the Natural Practice by Dr David Owen, Dr Patricia Ridsdale and Dr Katya Mishanina, who include homeopathy within the broader approach of integrative medicine. The BHA clinic will be solely homeopathy based in accordance with the aims of the BHA.