UK To Regulate And
Control ALL Alternative
Health Therapies
By Patrick Wintour
Link
11-27-00
The booming complementary health medicines market
is to be brought under full regulation by the
government following a damning report to be
published next week by a parliamentary committee.
The 18-month inquiry by the Lords science select
committee has left peers shocked at the haphazard
standards and lack of even self-regulation. They
have also found that the information produced on
alternative medicines is of hugely variable quality
and sometimes dangerously misleading.
Nearly 20% of the population use alternative or
complementary medicines, such as acupuncture,
reflexology, homeopathic dentistry, or herbal
remedies, spending more than £500m annually in the
process.
The government is likely to set a timetable for
statutory regulation, starting with acupuncture and
herbal medicine. The regulation is likely to be
brought in on an ad hoc basis using the Health Act
passed last year.
Only two therapies are at present statutorily
regulated - osteopathy and chiropractic - but even
they have encountered difficulty bringing all their
training bodies into one regulatory authority.
Ministers are reluctant to provide alternative
remedies on the NHS until there is clearer evidence
of their efficacy and proper regulation. There is
virtually no serious evidence-based research into
their effectiveness, largely because the big
pharmaceutical companies are unwilling to fund the
research. The companies cannot patent the research
findings and therefore make a profit.
Advocates of alternative medicines have argued that
their individualised and holistic approach makes it
difficult to carry out traditional scientific
research, but the committee is expected to reject
this claim. It will call on the government to make
research a priority and suggest the industry has a
responsibility to fund research.
The committee was told that some therapies had as
many as 12 different associations making it
possible for a therapist, struck off for
incompetence from one voluntary register, to carry
on practising by joining another. The only sanction
is criminal law.
Yvette Cooper, the minister for public health, who
has used complementary medicines to combat ME, told
the committee that she was disturbed by the lack of
proper regulation in the field.
Liam Donaldson, the chief medical officer, told the
committee: "It is important, as the complementary
professions form themselves into recognisable
professional bodies, that they are also brought
into a statutory framework."
He said the move would ensure only professional and
trained practitioners could practise. They could
also be formally trained on the limits of
alternative medicines, and the need to cooperate
with orthodox medicine.
The committee will warn that some invasive
techniques, such as the use of acupuncture needles,
need to be closely overseen.
It will also warn that such treatments can be
dangerous if they are seen as an alternative to
conventional medicine, so leading patients to be
deprived of the necessary orthodox medicines.
The committee is expected to grade all the various
therapies into three categories according to the
usefulness and level of regulation. It will propose
the regulatory bodies should eventually be funded
and include lay members in the same way as the
General Medical Council.
Phil Sr.
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