Statutory Regulation of CAMs decision due within months

Decisions on extending statutory regulation within complementary and alternative  practitioners are likely to be announced by the government before the end of the year.

But ministers and officials will probably stick to the present policy of encouraging self-regulation.

Indications of this came in the Commons  when Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley asked whether there would be any consultations over any plans for statutory regulation of CAMs.
 
Junior Health Minister Jane Kennedy, in a written parliamentary reply, pointed out that the Prince of Wales’ Foundation for Integrated Health had received a £900,000 grant to supports its work on the regulation of complementary therapies.

She added: “Proposals for statutory regulation of complementary and alternative medical practitioners will be considered in the context of the outcome of the current review of non-medical regulation, which is due to report by the end of 2005.”
 

Several years ago the  Department of Health commissioned a  survey of voluntary regulatory bodies for complementary therapies with the findings published in 2000.
 
That study suggested around 50,000 CAM practitioners in the United Kingdom plus almost 10,000 conventional healthcare professionals practising CAMs of one sort or another.

The following year a survey by the Office for National Statistics found that one in ten people in the UK had used a complementary therapy in the previous 12 months.
 
Currently practitioners of only two CAMs – chiropractic and osteopathy  - are subject to statutory regulation. However in  March last year the Department of Health published proposals for the statutory regulation of herbal medicine and acupuncture practitioners.
 
The DoH believes statutory regulation will improve public protection by setting clear standards of training and competence and also reassure patients that practitioners are not only suitably qualified, but are also competent and up-to-date with developments in practice.

Meanwhile ministers and officials have stressed the government wants to encourage other CAM professions to work towards voluntary self-regulation.

So far the government has denied any firm plans to extend statutory regulation, claiming instead it expects unregulated CAM professions to develop their own unified systems of voluntary self-regulation.