National Institute of Medical Herbalists

There have been three important papers published of late.

In 2006 the regulation of the non-medical healthcare professions (Foster Review) reviewed the regulation of all healthcare workers except for doctors. Please click here to find the relevant documentation.

The Donaldson report Good doctors, safer patients (Donaldson Report). reviewed the regulation of doctors.Please click here to find the relevant documentation.

Arising out of these two reviews, in 2006 a Government White Paper, Trust assurance and safety - the regulation of Health professionals in the 21st Century was published in February 2007. In this White Paper, the Government declared its intent to make major changes to regulation of the healthcare sector. In particular, the White Paper ruled out the possibility of any new small Regulatory Councils (like those for the Osteopaths and Chiropractors), for the statutory regulation of “emerging professions” and suggested that the Health Professions Council (HPC) would be a suitable “home” for such newly regulated healthcare professions.

This White Paper can be found here.

The Joint Working Group, now called the Steering Group, was established by Jane Kennedy, then Minister of State in the Department of Health, in June 2006 following the publication of the Foster Review, specifically to prepare the ground for the regulation of practitioners of acupuncture, herbal medicine, traditional Chinese medicine and other traditional medicine systems practised in the UK.

Attached to the main Steering Group were three Stakeholder Groups, to inform the process and work on detailed issues such as scope of practice etc. The three Stakeholder Groups were delegated specific areas of interest, one working on matters concerning herbal / traditional medicine, another working on acupuncture issues and a third on issues of importance to traditional Chinese medicine. The Stakeholder Groups reported to the Steering Group through their respective Stakeholder Chairs who were themselves part of the Steering Group.

The Steering Group headed up by Professor Mike Pittilo had 2 NIMH members appointed to the Committee by the DH representing western herbal medicine but not the NIMH specifically since no particular professional association was represented on the Steering Group Committee. In addition, the Stakeholder Chair for herbal / traditional medicine was also a NIMH member. The first meeting was in June 2006, and the final meeting was September 2007.

The Steering Group considered as part of its remit all those topics involved in the process of statutory regulation such as scope of practice, fitness to practise, grandparenting and accreditation issues as well as CPD etc. The report from the Steering Group is to be delivered to the Minister of Health in early March 2008. We hope that it can be made available on our website for all members to read. The expectation is that a statutory instrument called a Section 60 order will be prepared by the DH probably next year (2009). This will begin the legal process of statutory regulation of herbal practitioners. It is at this time that the sums that the EHTPA has in reserve are going to be needed and utilised, to fund the work of solicitors scrutinising the order on our behalf.

It is expected that the regulator (most likely to be the HPC, but as yet not decided) will set up the register (currently expected late 2009), and there will be a 2-3 year period where people may apply to it and be “grandparented” on. Unless of course, you belong to one of the professional associations whose members will be transferred en masse. To date these associations have not been officially confirmed, but the consensus is that the NIMH will certainly qualify for this fast-track route for its members.

At this point it is appropriate to give a huge vote of thanks to those members involved, Ned Reiter, Peter Conway, and especially to Michael McIntyre who was chair of the Herbal/Traditional Medicine Stakeholder group responsible to the Steering Group. It would be hard to overstate the debt that the NIMH and herbal medicine generally owes these dedicated individuals.