There are good news from England in the fight to preserve the freedom to prescribe herbal remedies. As a background, herbal practitioners have been fighting to obtain a derogation from the upcoming European Directive so that they would be able to prescribe unlicensed remedies. This derogation revolved around them being statutorily registered: we have now obtained this.
The UK Secretary of State for Health has made an announcement today about regulation of herbal medicine practitioners. The issue of whether or not practitioners of acupuncture, herbal medicine and traditional Chinese medicine should be statutorily regulated has been debated since the House of Lords Select Committee report on Complementary and Alternative Medicine in 2000.
The Health Professions Council (HPC) has now been asked to establish a statutory register for practitioners supplying unlicensed herbal medicines. The proposal is, following creation of this register, to make use of a derogation in European medicines legislation (Article 5 (1) of Directive 2001/83/EC) that allows national arrangements to permit those designated as "authorized healthcare professionals" to commission unlicensed medicines to meet the special needs of their patients.
Accordingly, a scheme would be created enabling registered practitioners to commission unlicensed herbal medicines to meet the special needs of their individual patients. Safeguards for the public would be provided by a combination of professional regulation and linked medicines regulation, for example, to safeguard manufacturing standards.
If practitioner regulation is in place for the purposes of creating an Article 5(1) scheme this also opens the way to reform Section 12 (1) of the Medicines Act 1968. Under Section 12 (1), practitioners may prepare unlicensed herbal medicines on their own premises for use following consultation with individual patients. It is intended to move to the position that only registered practitioners would be able to operate under Section 12 (1) after regulation of practitioners is in place.
A formal consultation exercise will take place on specific legislative proposals for establishing the register and proposed reforms of medicines legislation later in 2001.
I think we all owe the European Herbal Practitioners Alliance (EHPA) and its chairman Michael McIntyre a huge debt of gratitude. In particular, Michael McIntyre has been fighting tirelessly for the past 10 years in defence of herbal medicine in England and Europe.
El Blog de Giovanni
Continuing Education CEU
Books & Workshops
Three Treasures, Women's Treasure, Little Treasures Formulae
Profile
- Giovanni
- With over 37-years of research and clinical experience, Giovanni Maciocia lectures, offers continuing education courses online and has written seven textbooks of Chinese medicine which have been acclaimed world-wide and translated into nine languages. He has also created two categories of formulae: The Three Treasures for the treatment of various common complaints and the Women’s Treasure for the treatment of gynaecological complaints. Giovanni Maciocia, whose Chinese name Ma Wan Li means “horse of ten-thousand miles”, has been teaching acupuncture and Chinese medicine internationally since 1974 and is one of the most highly respected practitioners of acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine in Europe. Because Giovanni reads Chinese, he has unique access to both old as well as modern Chinese medicine textbooks. While firmly rooted in traditional Chinese medicine, he innovatively adapts Eastern theories to Western conditions. Giovanni is Visiting Associate Professor of the Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Giovanni currently lives and works in Santa Barbara, California.