Event to mark the formation of the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council

Ben Bradshaw MP, Minister of State for Health Services gave a speech to welcome it.  He said 'patient safety is a matter of paramount importance to this Government and I do welcome this step to help the public to access safer and better services'.  

Kim Lavely, Chief Executive of FIH said how delighted and proud FIH felt that the new body had been formed.  'People will be able to tell that practitioners registered with the CNHC are properly trained and qualified and have met robust standards. They’ll also know where to turn in the event that they have a complaint to make about their care. The practitioners themselves will be able to demonstrate their own professionalism by announcing their registration with this body.'

Both spoke about the importance of further research into complementary therapies.  Kim Lavely said 'Let’s be in no doubt, building the evidence base is important, because people have the right to know what works and what doesn’t – but we won’t help the millions of people who already use complementary therapies if we leave them to fend for themselves'.

Maggie Dunn is co-Chair of the Federal regulatory board, a part of the CNHC.  She said that the UK now had a body that the public could use with confidence and that practitioners could be proud to belong to. The new body would now be looking to find ways to engage with practitioners whose professional bodies had decided not to participate in the process.

As of early April, the CNHC is poised to recruit a Chief Executive and complete its website.  It should be opening its books to the first wave of complementary practitioners later this summer.  In the meantime you can keep up with further news of the CNHC's development in the FIH newsletter.