Of course, the fact it is implausible does not necessarily mean it doesn’t work – there are very few certainties in science. But there is virtually no strong data to prove otherwise despite the fact it has been used for 200 years.

Advocates point out that over those past two centuries many patients have found it worked when all else failed. But the same could be said for voodoo, rhino horn, bears’ bile and bats’ urine – and we aren’t offered those on the NHS. Yet despite the lack of evidence, these remedies are becom­ing increasingly popular. In 2004 public expenditure on over-the-counter alternative rem­edies was about £25.5million with some 470,000 Britons buying them, 25 per cent more than in 1996. Experts say the market will grow by 15-20 per cent a year.

Yes, people should be allowed to choose to take what medicine they like – as long as it doesn’t harm them.

But that doesn’t mean the taxpayer has to fork out, particularly as there are effective, lifesaving drugs that the NHS cannot afford to offer.

Supporters of alternative cures are also quick to point out that the NHS has spent relatively little money on these treatments. But this isn’t the point. The NHS purports to be based on sound scientific evidence. Either it adheres to those principles or it doesn’t.

Perhaps more worryingly there are fears that people could be risking their lives by not using tried and tested drugs to overcome life-threatening conditions. Last year this paper revealed concerns that Prince Charles’s backing for treating asthma patients with homoeopathy in­stead of conventional medicine could lead to deaths. Even experts in homoeopathy urged him to “leave science to the scientists”.

The reason why trusts are turning their backs on alternative remedies is because they have looked at the evidence and feel they can no longer justify it.

This was prompted a year ago by 13 senior doctors. Frustrated by the lack of funding for conventional treatments, the specialists wrote to all trusts saying that “unproven or disproved treatments such as homoeopathy and reflexology ought not to be available free to patients”.

It also said the NHS should not be funding such therapies while it had to refuse or ration access to effective cancer drugs.

Since then more than 20 trusts have taken action to reduce or cut access to homoeopathy.

Les Rose, a consultant biologist and one of the signatories of the letter to trusts, told the Sunday Express: “Trusts aren’t stupid. We asked them to look at this issue and they have.

“On the basis of what they found many are now restricting access to homoeopathy. If we’d asked them not to use antibiotics we wouldn’t have got anywhere.”