Prince Charles should discuss not pronounce

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 23rd May 2006

Charles Windsor, Prince of Wales

As a letter from leading British doctors particularly critical of two recent initiatives of the Prince's Foundation for Integrated Medicine appears in The Times today urging the NHS to stop funding complementary therapies and pay only for medicine based on solid evidence, Liberal Democrat Science Spokesman, Dr Evan Harris MP, said:

"If the heir to the throne is going to use his position to seek to influence public policy, he should make himself available to debate and discuss with policy makers and to defend his views openly.

"Instead Prince Charles seeks to promote his own interests by pronouncement and by commissioning reports which are not peer reviewed and which reject the recognised scientific approach to issues such as effective health care.

"If the NHS spends money on treatments which do not work or have not been shown to work in proper scientific studies, then that is less money available to spend on treatments which do work."

The full letter appearing in The Times today can be seen here: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2191985,00.html