To cut or not to cut …

Abstract

There are not many people who would admit that, in their field, there should be cuts. I don't think I am brave or clever enough to be the odd one out. So here it is: I am against cuts in health care (the term ‘health care’, in my view, does not include management and administration — in these areas I would cut generously). Why? Because money is already short — sometimes too short even to meet the most basic needs of patients. But, come to think of it, in my particular field (complementary medicine), we seem to squander quite a lot of money on stuff that one cannot call ‘basic needs’. Take ‘The Prince of Wales' Foundation for Integrated Medicine’, for instance. They recently received £2 million (£1 million from the Department of Health) for facilitating the regulation of practitioners. In complementary medicine, that is an amount of money researchers can only dream of. And what did the ‘Foundation’ do with it? Search me — ah yes, they helped create the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council — a resounding flop.1 And they facilitated the ‘Pittilo Report’.2 Apart from a gong for the lead author,3 this does not seem to go far either.4 If the Prince wants to ride farcical hobby horses, should he not use his own money? So there you are, I would cut expenditure for these and many other nonsensical activities,5 even in my very own field. So I might be brave. But clever? My research unit in Exeter might soon have to close because of lack of funds. This would surely not have happened had I aligned myself with the ‘right’ people and abstained from stubbornly insisting on good evidence and critically speaking out against bogus treatments. So, clever? Afraid not!