Madam, – At a time of severe economic hardship in many areas of Europe, including Ireland and especially the health service, it seems an unusual step for the EU to try to increase costs in the area of health services for no benefit whatever to us. It is now widely acknowledged that the medical industry is the fourth, possibly the third, leading cause of death in the US after cancer, heart disease and maybe strokes. Other countries are approaching this figure. A survey of the emergency department in Vancouver Hospital a couple of years ago showed that 12 per cent of the emergencies were caused by previous hospital treatment. The figures are rising rapidly in Europe and may well be at this level already.
Alternative health, including herbal medicines, and even placebos, work really effectively and do not, even in the wildest dreams of Big Pharma, remotely approach this level of damage to human beings. In spite of this, the EU bureaucrats are trying desperately to pass the Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive, Directive 2004/24/EC. This will remove access to the vast majority of herbal medicinal products beginning April 30th, 2011.
Safe, effective treatments that have been used for generations, probably by our own grandmothers, should not be wiped out solely for the profit of multinational pharmaceutical corporations. Our access to herbal products that have traditionally been freely available must continue uninterrupted if we are still to consider Ireland (and Europe) to be free and safe for its citizens – all of us.
I would like to ask all readers to contact the Minister for Health, James Reilly, and MEPs to ask them to put all possible pressure on the Directorate General for Health and Consumers, and any other related area they know, to get suitable amendments inserted that reflect freedom of choice. Or preferably, to get the proposal dropped completely, as it is against the people who vote and, ultimately, pay for everything. – Yours, etc,