The Bremen Chamber of Physicians has decided that there will be no recognized further education and examinations for doctors on homeopathy from next year. The method of treatment lacked "scientific evidence of its effectiveness," according to the decision, which was adopted under a new training system that will apply from July 2020.
The Federal Medical Council, on the other hand, adheres to the advanced training in homeopathy for specialists in its model continuing education system. At the state level, however, the medical associations can decide individually whether or not they want to offer the further education measures.
"The decision was taken unanimously by us," says Heidrun Gitter, President of the Bremen Medical Association, the "Weser-Kurier". "To offer a structured further education inclusive curriculum and examinations for procedures and means, whose effect is not scientifically comprehensible, we found something silly." It would be difficult if knowledge was checked for drugs whose substance was so diluted that they no longer contained any active ingredient.
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"I got congratulations from all over the republic and even a bouquet of flowers," says Gitter. Praise, for example, the Münster circle, an association of doctors who are critical of alternative medicine. "The people of Bremen have set standards, which will hopefully become a guiding principle for other federal states," says Bettina Schöne-Seifert, initiator of the Münster circle, also to the "Weser-Kurier".
Will this attack the freedom of therapy?
Criticism for the thrust came from the German Central Association of Homeopathic Doctors: The State Medical Association had decided against the interests of patients and against strengthening the freedom of therapy, it said in a statement in which the chairman Michaela Geiger is quoted. "Around 7,000 physicians with the additional title of homeopathy in Germany stand for therapy pluralism and do not want a 'monoculture' in medicine," she said. "75 percent of Germans also want a pluralistic integrative medicine."
In Germany, there is a lot of discussion about whether or not health insurance companies should pay for the costs of, among other things, globules. The National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians or SPD parliamentary group vice-president Karl Lauterbach have already advocated that statutory health insurance companies should refuse the reimbursement of homeopathic remedies. Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU), on the other hand, does not want to affect the assumption of costs by the health insurance funds.
Homeopathy is not part of the service catalog of the statutory health insurance. However, many health insurance companies reimburse homeopathic treatment costs as a voluntary benefit because there is a demand. This is also an instrument in competition.
