Archive for the 'Regulatory Bodies' Category

Voluntary regulation of CAM - more psuedo-regulation

Published
by
badchemist
on January 6, 2008
in Badscience, KKKly Mail, Regulatory Bodies and Society of Homeopaths
. 0 Comments

It’s been a while since I posted: thesis writing, job hunting and Xmas have taken their toll. Anyway hopefully I’ll be able to find some more time now.

Now for the point of this post. According to the Daily Hate there is to be new regulation of CAM. beginning in April. I’m all for proper regulation of CAM, too many charlatans have been peddling their snake oil for far too long, so this should really make me happy - unfortunately it doesn’t.

The Foundation of Integrative Health the organisation set up by probably the worlds most famous CAM advocate, HRH the Prince of Wales, are behind the scheme. More info about it can be found here. Apparently the scheme is

… being modelled on the General Medical Council and will follow Government guidelines for self-regulatory bodies.

but, with current legislation,

Although the council will be able to strike practitioners from the register there is nothing to stop them continuing to give treatments.

So although this will give the public a single place to see if their preferred charlatan CAM practitioner is recognised to practice to a professional standard there is still no way of preventing sub-standard quacks from practising their ‘art’ except in a few areas where statutory regulation already exists (chiropractors and osteopaths) or where such regulation is to be introduced (trad. chinese medicine and acupuncture). Hopefully this body will take their responsibilities more seriously than the SoH fiasco and the like and actually remove practitioners who fail to meet guidelines as otherwise this will be an utterly useless list.

UPDATE: When I wrote this earlier I was in a bit of a hurry and forgot one major point. The treatments/practices covered by this new regulatory body have very little, if any, evidence for their efficacy. Now I don’t care if someone wants to waste their money on useless treatments as long as the treatments are not being mis-sold as effective and they are being used for self-limiting conditions where the placebo effect can be of particular benefit. Unfortunately producing a regulatory body for snake oil only adds credence to the claims particularly as it is, in part, funded by the NHS.

EDIT: By way of Freudian slip I managed to put the Princess of Wales.

Australian homeopaths flout code of conduct too

Published
by
badchemist
on November 18, 2007
in Badscience, Regulatory Bodies and homeopathy
. 2 Comments

In my previous post I commented on some rather dubious content on the website of an Australian homeopath. This website belongs run by Frances Sheffield, RN, CM, DRM, MHlthSc.Ed., a professional member of the Australian Homeopathic Association. The AHA describes itself as (emphasis mine):

The Australian Homoeopathic Association is the largest and only national association of professional Homoeopaths in Australia, with branches throughout the country.

consequently it has a Code of Conduct (PDF). Section 2.9 of this code of conduct reads thus:

In announcing homoeopathic services, members shall state no more than the place and time of their practice, their qualifications and the services they are offering. The information contained in such announcements shall be factual and explanatory, not in the form of emotionally persuasive advertising, not claiming superior competency or implying cure of any named disease and not offering guarantees of a particular outcome as an inducement.

Now does implying protection from a disease that can not be prevented using conventional medicine contravene these regulations? A complaint may have to be made…