The Department of Health has published a report which puts the UK in the forefront in developing a scheme for safe and accountable delivery of a number of popular forms of complementary and alternative medicine.

The Report to Ministers from the Department of Health Steering Group on the Statutory Regulation (SR) of Practitioners of Acupuncture, Herbal Medicine, Traditional Chinese Medicine and Other Traditional Medicine Systems Practised in the UK was published on June 16th by the Steering Group.

The Steering Group proposes that there is an urgent need to proceed with the SR of practitioners of acupuncture, herbal medicine, traditional Chinese medicine and other traditional medicine systems. This is vital in order to safeguard the public from incompetent and unsafe practitioners and to enable informed choice by those who wish to access these forms of treatment.

The Register of Chinese Herbal Medicine is amongst those voluntary professional bodies mentioned in the Report that have provided satisfactory criteria which, it is argued, should allow their members to be transferred directly to a statutory body. It is proposed that the professions considered by the Report should be regulated by the Health Professions Council.

Nick Lampert, the RCHM's representative on the Steering Group, said: "The RCHM wholly welcomes this report. The RCHM, which represents practitioners of Chinese herbal medicine, has been closely involved at every stage. We believe that it is essential to ensure that members of the public can clearly identify competent and ethical practitioners of Chinese herbal medicine. We look forward to participating in the proposed new statutory arrangements, which will be of the greatest benefit to users of Chinese herbal medicine in the UK."' Read more....