The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 280 No 7484 p6
5/12 January 2008

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News summary

Voluntary regulation planned for complementary therapies

Practitioners of alternative therapies will be able to register with a new regulator — the Natural Healthcare Council — that is to be launched in April 2008.

Registration with the council, which is being established by the Prince’s Foundation for Integrated Health, will be entirely voluntary. The Prince’s Foundation says that registration will indicate that an alternative therapy practitioner has a recognised qualification and subscribes to certain professional standards.

The creation of the NHC has been underpinned by three years’ work with a range of complementary therapy professions funded to the tune of £900,000 by the Department of Health.

The representative bodies for the following therapies are to urge their members to register with the new council:

• Alexander technique
• Bowen technique
• Cranial therapy
• Homoeopathy
• Massage therapy
• Naturopathy
• Nutritional therapy
• Shiatsu
• Yoga therapy