The Prince of Wales addressed the World Health Assembly and said that integrated healthcare could help to create a “powerful healing force for our world.”

“For the past 24 years I have argued that patients should be able to gain the benefit of the ‘best of both worlds’ – complementary and orthodox as part of an integrated approach to healing.

“Many of today’s complementary therapies are rooted in ancient traditions that intuitively understand the need to maintain balance and harmony with our minds, bodies and the natural world.

“Much of this knowledge, often based on oral traditions, is sadly being lost yet orthodox medicine has so much to learn from it.” (Read more)

One in two Britons now uses complementary therapy - we spend £350m a year on “natural remedies”.

Prince Charles recently said that complementary medicine should be available through the NHS and has called for a national strategy for research. The Prince of Wales' Foundation for Integrated Health has launched a five-year plan which outlines how to improve access to therapies.

Professor Dame Lesley Rees of St Bartholomew's Hospital, chair of trustees at the Foundation, said: “Patients are clearly voting with their feet for complementary therapies.”

Prince Charles described the key challenge in the next five years as "getting the message of an integrated approach to healthcare into the community and in giving everybody - patient and professional alike - the means to make the kind of informed decisions that will give them access to the best possible choices.”

The important thing about a natural therapy service is that it should be appropriate to the condition and the individual patient. Because of their approach, this should make it effective.

It should also be a safe environment with safe procedures. Our clinics are only run by properly trained practitioners.