The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 270 No 7251 p740
31 May 2003

This article
Reprint
Photocopy

News summary

Related websites
Five-year strategy (more)
Complementary and Alternative Medicine: the consumer perspective (more)

Call to integrate complementary health care into health service

Patients are being denied safe access to the benefits of complementary medicine because such therapies are not fully integrated into the health service, according to the Prince of Wales's Foundation for Integrated Health.

This view is set out in the organisation's five-year plan, published shortly before the World Health Organization was to consider a resolution calling, among other things, for the integration of traditional medicine into mainstream care in all WHO member states. The foundation takes the view that everyone should have access to the treatment approach of their choice, safe in the knowledge that it is effective and well regulated. It says that many of these therapies remain outside mainstream services, beyond the reach of many patients and health professionals, and beyond the scrutiny of National Health Service audit and inspection.

Key elements of the five-year plan are:

• Giving guidance to NHS trusts on how to provide complementary health care

• Encouraging the development of integrated health care schemes

• Providing seed funding for research into integrated and complementary health care

• Encouraging all medical schools to teach complementary medicine modules