The Latest Regulation News
Today we have received news that the Dept of Health are about to publish the results of the Consultation on the regulation of Herbalists. We are not sure if you are aware but there are a group of herbalists who do not want to be regulated, whereas the majority do wish to be regulated. This group who do not want regulation have given the Government a get out opportunity. The Government are saying that herbalists themselves do not want regulation so they are not going to regulate us. Indications are that the Minister Andy Burnham may well try and rush a decision through opting for so called ‘light touch’ rather than statutory regulation.
Regulating Herbalists like Wheel-Clampers!
This ‘light touch’ approach is the one we least wanted. It is a form of licensing which is the same form of regulation that bouncers and wheel-clampers have. Do you personally feel that this form of regulation is appropriate for practitioners who make medical diagnoses and treat patients with internal medicines?
The Current Regulatory System
We have been members of the National Institute of Medical Herbalists (NIMH) for nearly 9 years. NIMH has a code of Ethics, disciplinary procedures, and continuing professional development requirements for all its members. It currently isn’t obligatory for herbalists to be regulated in this way but Jodie and I feel very strongly that we should be regulated and held accountable for our actions.
We have written some letters
We have just sent off our letters to Andy Burnham MP (Secretary of State for Health) and Michael Howard MP on the matter, and this is what we wrote (as advised by NIMH). You may feel that you would like to write something too as a patient, or member of the public who wishes to maintain access to herbalists. We have been urged to send our letters by 25th March at the latest. We were going to write a template for you to use, but we feel that to do this would be to put words in your mouth and this is not fair. So instead we have included the letter we have sent below and would just like to outline to you that we want to be regulated because we feel this is very important for the future of Herbal Medicine. If you would like some help to put a letter together we would be happy to help you – just contact us on the form below.
Our Letter to Andy Burnham and Michael Howard
Andy Burnham MP
Secretary of State for Health
Department of Health
Richmond House
79 Whitehall
London SW1A 2NS
19th March 2010
Dear Mr. Burnham
Re. Statutory Regulation of Herbal Practitioners
I am a qualified, certified and practising herbal practitioner. I am a member of the National Institute of Medical Herbalists, which is a member association of the European Herbal and Traditional medicine Practitioners Association (EHTPA).
I am writing to you in response to two rumours that have come to my attention and which have given me cause for concern.
The first is the suggestion that herbal practitioners are against statutory regulation. This is completely unfounded. I know that my professional body and the other professional associations within the EHTPA solidly support statutory regulation, as I do personally. I am aware however that a very small number of herbalists oppose statutory regulation and have initiated petitions and writing campaigns that have almost exclusively been supported by members of the public (not herbal practitioners) who oppose statutory regulation in principle since they believe (mistakenly) that this will reduce their access to the herbs they currently enjoy. The opposite is actually true – statutory regulation is the only means by which the public can continue to access the herbal medicines they depend upon to support their health.
The second rumour is that you are considering abandoning statutory regulation in favour of a “light touch licensing scheme”. Such a decision would be disastrous for herbal medicine users and for herbal practitioners. Only statutory regulation can achieve the following goals:
- Provide a high level of public protection by raising standards in herbal practitioner education and practice and by making practitioners fully accountable for their actions
- Protect the title of “herbalist” so that the public are able to identify bona fide practitioners
- Provide a credible register of herbal practitioners
- Establish herbal practitioners as “authorised healthcare professionals” so that they can continue to access a full range of herbal medicine products following the introduction of the Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive (THMPD) in 2011. Failure to achieve this status would reduce public access to herbal products on which their health depends, threaten the viability of herbal manufacturers and herbal practices and give the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) an almighty problem in trying to devise a new form of herbal medicines regulation in the UK to deal with the crisis that would result from failure to statutorily regulate
- Achieve parity between herbal practitioners and other complementary and alternative medicine ( CAM ) practitioners who are currently statutorily regulated (osteopaths and chiropractors). Failure to statutorily regulate would create a two-tier system where some CAM practitioners are statutorily regulated whilst others are not. Such a situation cannot be justified and would only serve to confuse the public and undermine their confidence in a “light touch licensing scheme”
- Ensure that ethnic groups in the UK who rely upon traditional medicine practices such as Chinese Herbal Medicine continue to have access to the healthcare option of their choice
A “light touch licensing scheme” will not achieve these goals and is therefore totally inappropriate. The inadequacy of such a scheme should be particularly clear in the light of the recent tragic case of a patient who developed renal cancer after taking a herbal medicine product containing aristolochic acids – only statutory regulation would have prevented this case.
You will be aware that the move to statutorily regulating herbal practitioners began in 2000 when the House of Lords recommended that acupuncture and herbal medicine practitioners should be statutorily regulated and the Government published a response supporting this. Statutory regulation has been the form of regulation that has been supported by both the Government and acupuncture and herbal practitioners over the decade since that point and was the form of regulation recommended by the Department of Health Steering Group Report in 2008. The possibility of a “light touch licensing scheme” was only introduced as an option in the consultation on the Steering Group Report – this option had no support from the Steering Group and has none from the acupuncture or herbal professions. Statutory regulation is the only form of regulation supported by acupuncture and herbal practitioners, and it is also supported by the Health Professions Council (HPC) and the MHRA.
You will understand that it would be unwise to attempt to force a form of regulation on a profession where the majority of the profession do not support that form of regulation. The vast majority of herbal practitioners (and acupuncture practitioners) do not support “light touch licensing” and this would make enforcing such a scheme highly problematic.
Given the complexities around this issue it should be clear that statutory regulation actually represents the lightest touch (and least costly) form of regulation for herbal medicine since it best fits not only the requirement for public protection but also changes in herbal medicines legislation. A “light touch licensing scheme” would actually be nothing of the sort since it would require the MHRA to go to great lengths and great expense to invent a new system of herbal medicines regulation to fit such a licensing scheme. It would also require the costly construction of new regulatory architecture whereas statutory regulation would involve utilising the existing services of the HPC.
Statutory regulation is the form of regulation that is most appropriate for herbal medicine practitioners and I urge you to consider carefully the points made above before reaching your decision on this extremely important issue which affects the healthcare of millions of people in the UK and the livelihoods of thousands of practitioners of herbal medicine and acupuncture.
Yours faithfully
Jodie Foreman BSc (Hons) MNIMH and Hayley Jones BSc (Hons) MNIMH GHR Reg
Cc: My MP: Michael Howard QC MP, House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA
