Regulating complementary healthcare

In the UK, orthodox medicine is statutorily regulated.  This means that no-one can claim to be a doctor or nurse without having passed stringent examinations.  The picture for complementary healthcare is much more mixed - while chiropractors and osteopaths are statutorily regulated, many other practices are not.  This makes it hard for the public to distinguish between an experienced, responsible practitioner and someone who has little training. 

These pages describe how we have worked with various complementary healthcare professions to help them move towards voluntary self-regulation.  With the formation of the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council our involvement with the regulation of some therapies is coming to an end, but we are still working with a final few until 2010.