The RCP should support the statutory regulation of herbal practitioners

Michael Mcintyre; Andrew Flower

doi:10.7861/clinmedicine.13-1-114a

Editor – Your editorial (Clin Med October 2012 pp 403–4) suggests that when statutory regulation of herbalists takes place via the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC), herbalists should be required to report on the adverse effects of herbal preparations. However, the leading herbal professional bodies have operated for years within the UK Yellow Card Scheme (YCS), advocating that all practitioners should be party to this when statutorily regulated by the HCPC.

In the light of your call for participation in the YCS, it is odd that you should characterise the HCPC as ‘an unusual home’ for herbal practitioners. The only way that all herbal practitioners can be required to participate in the YCS is through statutory regulation; voluntary regulation will not suffice. The government white paper, Trust, Assurance and Safety¹ specifically ruled that ‘emerging professions should be managed by the existing statutory regulatory bodies’ to use existing expertise to promote common regulatory standards as well as multidisciplinary working. The HCPC is surely the most suitable regulator for herbal practitioners precisely because of its wide ranging portfolio. Significantly the HCPC has expressed its backing for the statutory regulation of herbal practitioners.²

It is a matter of regret that the RCP appears to be having second thoughts about backing statutory regulation of herbal practitioners. In an address on traditional medicine, Dr Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), said ‘The two systems of traditional and western medicine need not clash. Within the context of primary health care they can blend together in a beneficial harmony, using the best features of each system and compensating for certain weaknesses in each… The time has never been better, and the reasons never greater, for giving traditional medicine its proper place in addressing the many ills that face all our modern – and our traditional – societies.’³

In the interest of patients, we urge the RCP to support the statutory regulation of herbal practitioners as proposed by the Secretary of State for Health.⁴

View this table:

Table 1.

HIV risk factors. Reproduced with permission of the British HIV Association.¹

Footnotes

Please submit letters for the editor's consideration within three weeks of receipt of Clinical Medicine. Letters should ideally be limited to 350 words, and sent by email to: clinicalmedicine{at}rcplondon.ac.uk

References

↵
The Stationery Office. Trust assurance and safety, the regulation of health professionals in the 21st century. London: TSO, 2007. www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/@dh/@en/documents/digitalasset/dh_065947.pdf [Accessed 7 December 2012].
↵
Health and Care Professionals Council. HPC's response to the joint consultation on the report to Ministers from the Department of Health Steering Group on the statutory regulation of practitioners of acupuncture, herbal medicine, traditional Chinese medicine and other traditional medicine systms practiced in the UK. London: HCPC, 2009. www.hpc-uk.org/assets/documents/10002BC6HPCresponsetojointconsultationonCAMsteeringgroupreport.pdf [Accessed 7 December 2012].
↵
1. Chan M
. Address at the WHO congress on traditional medicine, 2008. www.who.int/dg/speeches/2008/20081107/en/index.html [Accessed 7 December 2012].
↵
Department of Health. Practitioners of acupuncture, herbal medicine and traditional Chinese medicine. Written ministerial statement. London: DH, 2011.