The official body for Australian General Practicioners has asked pharmacists to strip their shelves of homeopathic products and warned doctors not to prescribe them because they do nothing. The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners has formally recommended GPs stop prescribing homeopathic remedies and says pharmacists must also stop stocking such products because there is no evidence they are effective in any way.

The RACGP’s position statement on homeopathy, released on Wednesday, follows recent findings by the National Health and Medical Research Council that homeopathy produces no health benefits over and above a placebo. The report warns that such unproven products might cause them to delay seeking out proper medical care, or lead them to reject conventional medical approaches entirely.