Prince Charles: 'Why I have been proved right about alternative medicines'

From a speech by the Prince of Wales to the Foundation for Integrated Health

Today these sentiments sound relatively tame, but over 20 years ago they were thought by some to be an "attack on modern medicine" - and, by implication I was therefore "anti-science".

But it was worth persevering: because I have always believed that an integrated approach to healthcare will lead to the betterment of the patient's welfare and the relief of unnecessary suffering.

In 1997, my Foundation for Integrated Health was established - and I believe that it has been instrumental in developing the concept of integrated healthcare. Times and attitudes change, thankfully, and today integrated health is moving steadily towards the centre stage. As I said when rather bravely addressing the BMA's 150th Anniversary Dinner in 1982 - "today's unorthodoxy has an uncomfortable habit of becoming tomorrow's orthodoxy".

A phenomenal 16 million people in the UK now use complementary treatments and more than 50 per cent of GPs are making complementary healthcare available to patients in some form or other.

Last week's report, compiled by the economist Christopher Smallwood, found that there was good evidence to show that complementary treatments could help to fill "effectiveness gaps" in some of the orthodox treatments offered by the NHS - particularly in relation to many chronic conditions such as lower back pain, stress, anxiety and depression, and post-operative nausea and pain. This evidence, I think, takes an important step towards developing a more effective degree of integration - that is, combining the best of complementary and conventional approaches to healthcare in the UK.