Title of publication:
Need for regulation of complementary and alternative therapies. Report of the Working
Group to examine the need for legislation on complementary and alternative therapies.
Summary:
The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health set up in May 2008 a Working Group to examine the need for regulating complementary and alternative therapies for the period from 1 June 2008 to 31 March 2009. It was assigned to examine the major problems related to complementary and alternative therapies from the perspective of patient safety, to assess the related need for legislation and to put forward proposals for the regulation of complementary and alternative therapies. As the fi rst phase the Working Group proposes restrictive legal provisions so as to enable tackling emerging problems that endanger patient safety as soon as possible. It proposes prescribing, in order to ensure patient safety, that only health care professionals may carry out the treatment of certain patient groups. Persons other than health care professionals should be allowed to treat certain serious diseases and patient groups only in cooperation with a physician. The report contains a draft Government bill for amending the Act on Health
Care Professionals. As the second phase the Working Group proposes preparing legislation on complementary and alternative therapies. The law on complementary and alternative therapies to be enacted should include, besides the restrictive provisions referred to above, e.g. a defi nition of complementary and alternative therapies, a provision on the scope of application of the act, general obligations for persons providing complementary and alternative therapies on a professional basis, provisions on marketing and its supervision, provisions on the registration of therapists providing complementary and alternative therapies, and provisions on the
supervision of complementary and alternative therapies. The Working Group has also prepared a few other development proposals that could contribute to the safety of complementary and alternative therapies. The Working Group considers it important to increase the dialogue between the providers of complementary and alternative therapies and health care professionals
in order to promote patient safety and to create a more favourable attitude climate. It proposes that the organisations representing complementary and alternative therapies should develop their activities for instance by organising themselves better. The research on alternative treatments should be increased and a data bank on research fi ndings established.
