Herbs get the push: no statutory regulation for western herbalists or Traditional Chinese Medicine

It makes a nice change to be able to compliment an official government report. Ever since the House of Lords report in 2000, the governments have been vacillating about what should be done about herbalists. At the moment both western herbalists and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) are essentially unregulated. Many (but not all) herbalists have been pushing for statutory regulation, which they see it as government endorsement. It would give them a status like the General Medical Council. Chinese medicine as taught at Middlesex University A new report has ruled out this possibility, for very good reasons [download local copy]. Back story (abridged!) My involvement began with the publication in 2008 of a report on the Regulation of Practitioners of Acupuncture, Herbal Medicine, Traditional Chinese Medicine . That led to my post, A very bad report: gamma minus for the vice-chancellor. The report was chaired by the late Professor Michael Pittilo BSc PhD CBiol FIBiol FIBMS FRSH FLS FRSA, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen. The membership of the group consisted entirely of quacks and the vice -chancellor’s university ran a course in homeopathy (now closed). The Pittilo report recommended statutory regulation and "The threshold entry route to the register will normally be through a Bachelor degree with Honours". It ignored entirely the little problem that you can’t run a BSc degree in a subject thatR...
Source: DC's goodscience - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Academia Chinese medicine Harry Cayton Health Professions Council herbal medicine herbalism Michael Driscoll Middlesex university Pittilo Prince Charles Professional Standards Authority University of Westminster alternative medicin Source Type: blogs