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Welcome to the website of Dr HJD Jeggels, MD (VU Ams), MRCP (UK), FBIH (Hon), DHM (Hon), medical and homoeopathic practitioner. The primary aim of this website at present is to provide patients access to some background information concerning my practice, as well as to relevant questionnaires, information leaflets and a map.

This website will be developed in greater detail and extent as time and events allow me. I intend to post in the near future, articles on the politics of health and medicine.

Nevertheless, I must use this home page to clarify some misconceptions and perhaps some misunderstandings which patients have concerning homoeopathy. Experience has taught me that patients do not know where to place homoeopathy with respect to what I term, "official medicine" (OM), more commonly known as modern medicine (MM) or biomedicine, as is practiced in most countries. MM is the form of medicine exclusively taught at "official medical schools or health faculties", since it gained political domination over other therapeutic systems during the 1930s. MM is therefore viewed by many patients as the "official" or the "right" medicine, while all other systems of treating the ill or infirm are viewed and termed "alternative", "complementary" or otherwise in a crude and tactless manner, "quackery", e.g. I shall deal with this topic later, in line with my promise to post articles on the politics of medicine and health, since the last sentence is a reflection of the political nature of medicine.

Where does one "place" homoeopathy? I will elaborate on the "position" of homoeopathy in a round about manner, starting with the fact that I studied MM at the Free University of Amsterdam (Vrije Universiteit [VU Amsterdam]) in the Netherlands during the early 1980s. Most medical courses tend to span 6 years; in the United Kingdom 5 years, while in the United States of America 4 years, as medical students there are obliged to have another degree or qualification before entering medical school.

During one's medical studies, many different subjects are covered, ranging from the study of the make-up of the human body (anatomy), its normal function (physiology), as well as disturbances of the various body elements (pathology), etc. One of the important subjects we study is how drugs work as well as which drugs to use for which diseases of a particular patient, taking note that I am not discussing the fact that some patients may need an operation. As medical students we are instructed how to choose a treatment option from among a number of different treatment options to treat patients. Doctors therefore have, according to their training, the option to select a medicine to use for a disease of a particular patient, or to perform an operation on a patient, e.g.; this aspect of medical practice is termed the treatment or therapeutic option.

Nevertheless, before a therapeutic option can be considered, the following general components of medical practice must be fulfilled:

• the practitioner has to enquire about all the details of the complaints or diseases of the patient (history taking);
• then examine the patient (performed physical examination);
• consider which group of related diseases (disease differential diagnosis) the patient may be suffering from;
• consider whether investigations are necessary; e.g. blood tests or an X-ray;
• then come to a final conclusion about the disease or problem the patient is suffering from;
• only then, would the practitioner consider which treatment (therapeutic option) is appropriate for this patient's main problem;
• in my case, I have to decide which homoeopathic treatment (my therapeutic option) is appropriate for this patient, at this moment in time;
• a surgeon, e.g., also obtains the patient's history, performs a physical examination, considers a disease differential diagnosis; then only, would the surgeon consider his/her therapeutic option, which would be to operate or not. For the surgeon, surgery is his/her therapeutic option;
• the general practitioner's therapeutic option is mainly that of conventional drugs;
• in summary therefore, medical doctors would have to decide according to their knowledge and training, which therapeutic option each would consider for their respective patients;
• I must stress the following: irrespective of which therapeutic option a practitioner (MM, homoeopathic, traditional medicine, e.g.) decides on for a patient, that practitioner must possess a competency of medicine in general; the importance of my last statement can be illustrated by the following example: the example I choose is that of a pregnancy where the foetus is unfortunately developing in one of the Fallopian tubes and not within the womb. This disastrous problem must be recognised by the practitioner on the basis of his/her medical competency, as missing it, would result in dire consequences for that patient, as well as the practitioner.

I must add the fact that the majority of homoeopathic practitioners in Europe, the USA and for instance South Africa are not MM graduates; they have studied homoeopathic medicine at homoeopathic colleges. The curricula in these colleges mirror the curricula of "official" medical faculties, with two big differences; firstly, the therapeutic option is mainly that of homoeopathy, and secondly, homoeopathic students are unfortunately not exposed to the "official" medical training hospitals. This scenario is unlike the case of India, where fully recognised homoeopathic medical schools with their associated training hospitals still exist today, while the homoeopathic medical schools and hospitals which existed in the USA 100 years ago were closed due to political action against them. In the USA, the homoeopathic medical schools were forced to change their curricula to that of MM.

I am certain that the above brief discussion has clarified for you, that homoeopathy, as the practitioner's therapeutic option, is in essence but a small part of a large volume of knowledge and skills which that practitioner requires.

© Dr HJD Jeggels 2006.

This website was updated on 29 March 2008.

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  Registration Details:

Health Professions Council of South Africa :

  MP 0389730

The Allied Health Professions Council of South Africa ; Homoeopathic Registration:

A 03623

  Practice numbers:

Medical:

1522272

Homoeopathic:

0807605