Enlarge imageLONDON (Reuters) - Prince Charles has commissioned a report into how the government could save money by using alternative medicine in the public healthcare system, the Times newspaper said on Wednesday.
Charles, a long-time advocate of complementary medicines, asked a former chief economics adviser to Barclays Bank to see where savings could be made by avoiding traditional drug treatments for certain conditions, the report said.
A spokeswoman for the prince declined to comment on the report.
"As you know, the report has not been completed yet, so it would be inappropriate to comment on it," she told Reuters.
According to leaked draft conclusions of the report in the Times, the report will argue that the state-owned National Health Service could save millions of pounds by using alternative treatments.
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It will say up to 480 million pounds could be saved if one in 10 family doctors offered homeopathy as an alternative to standard drugs, the Times said.
Savings of up to 3.5 billion pounds could be achieved by offering spinal manipulation rather than drugs to people with back pain.
Charles has a reputation as an environmental crusader, but he has been mocked in the media ever since he admitted talking to plants in his garden.
He has championed organic food at his Highgrove Estate in western England and has warned of the "disastrous consequences" of genetically modified crops.
Last year, he fired a new broadside at the scientific community, warning of the dangers of the breakthrough science of nanotechnology.
In an article for the Guardian newspaper in February 2004, Charles said it was extraordinary that alternative medicine was not available to all NHS patients.
"Despite a recent poll indicating that 75 percent of people want complementary medicine on the NHS ... very few such clinics exist," he wrote.
