Report launch: No system of regulation can prevent rogue practitioners in complementary therapy, the Minister for Health and Children, Mary Harney, has warned. She has also asked people not to avail of complementary therapies without first discussing it with their GPs.
Ms Harney was speaking yesterday at the launch of the Report of the National Working Group on the Regulation of Complementary Therapists.
The report was commissioned by the Department of Health following concerns about the lack of regulation of complementary therapies.
"The recommendations [in this report] together with the attitude and culture of the complementary therapy sector is the greatest guarantee to minimise rogue practitioners in the future," she said.
The Minister said that her preference was for a robust system of voluntary self-regulation for the complementary therapy sector. The report itself recommended statutory regulation for an estimated 400 herbalists, acupuncturists and traditional Chinese medicine practitioners and voluntary self-regulation for all other complementary therapists. Approximately 2,000 complementary therapists are practising in Ireland at present.
Internationally, the trend within complementary therapies is towards voluntary self-regulation which is deemed to be ethics driven with professional associations holding their members to code of ethics and good practice.
Experts argue that, by contrast, statutory regulation can sometimes lead to setting minimum legal standards. Osteopaths and chiropractors fall outside the report as these therapy groups are seeking regulation via the Health and Social Care Professions Act.
Yesterday, the Minister also launched the Department of Health information guide for the public on complementary therapies which will be available free in health centres and complementary therapy centres.
She said: "We are asking the public not to avail of complementary therapies without first discussing it with their GPs. I've met families who have had disgraceful treatment from qualified doctors who have set up complementary medicine clinics.
"But I've also seen great use of complementary therapies in hospices, in day-care centres and nursing homes for older people and with cancer patients."
Josephine Lynch, from the Federation of Irish Complementary Therapy Associations (FICTA), said: "The varying qualifications of complementary therapists is one of the central issues. Bringing different organisations that represent the same therapies together is another difficulty."
The Department of Health has committed to being involved with work days for therapy groups to resolve these issues.
Dr Brian Kennedy, GP and homeopathic physician, described the report as a "trust-building exercise" which will provide a basis for dialogue between the complementary and conventional medicine sectors.
"Such dialogue has up to now been frozen," he said.
Judith Ashton, president of the Irish Massage Therapy Association which represents some 600 registered massage therapists, said: "I welcome this initiative but it has been a long time coming. A lot of work has been done but integrated healthcare is still a long way off because orthodox medicine has such a strong position."
Ms Harney also spoke about how the future enforcement of the Traditional Herbal Medicines Directive by the Irish Medicines Board will further protect the public.
