London: A charity founded by Prince Charles to promote homeopathy in Britain has been shut down after police arrested a former official for alleged fraud and money laundering.
The Prince`s Foundation for Integrated Health in a statement on Friday said: "The Trustees of the Prince`s Foundation for Integrated Health have decided to close the charity.”
"Whilst the closure has been planned for many months and is part of an agreed strategy, the trustees have brought forward the closure timetable as a result of a fraud investigation at the charity."
Police arrested a 40-year-old man and a 54-year-old woman on Tuesday, saying the pair were linked to a complaint about fraud at the charity.
The foundation, in its statement said: "The trustees feel that the foundation has achieved its key objective of promoting the use of integrated health. Since The Foundation was set up in 1993, integrated health has become part of the mainstream healthcare agenda, with over half a million patients using complementary therapies each year, alongside conventional medicine."
Prince Charles set up the charity in 1993 to promote "integrated health care" - combing conventional medicine with alternative therapies including acupuncture, aromatherapy, homeopathy and massage.
From 2000-2007, at the request of the Department of Health, the foundation ran a regulation programme which resulted in the creation, in 2008, of an independent self-regulatory body for complementary therapy, called the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council.
On April 01, 2010, the Secretary of State for Health announced plans to introduce statutory regulation for herbalists and to consider the equivalent for acupuncture.
"The Trustees believe that the best way of promoting integrated healthcare in the future is through the networks of specialist practitioners which the charity has helped to established."
These networks have brought together specialists and proponents of integrated healthcare, such as doctors, nurses, clinicians, consultants, scientists and students.
PTI
