Welcome to the EHTPA

In Memory of Professor Mike Pittilo

In memory and celebration of a wonderfully warm-hearted and talented man: Professor Mike Pittilo: born Edinburgh 7 October, 1954, died Aberdeen 16 February, 2010 (pdf)

A tragedy that should have been avoided

Two years ago. herbalists warned the Health Minister in person that failing to put full, statutory regulation in place would inevitably lead to a tragedy. Without it, the public has no protection from untrained, bogus practitioners and dodgy herbal products.

Now a heart-breaking case may have proved them right. Read more...

Letter from the Chair of the EHTPA..

to the journal Clinical Medicine in response to an editorial in the journal Clinical Medicine 2010, Vol 10, No 3 211-12.

Read the letter here...(pdf)

Department of Health - Complementary Medicine

Department of Health press release - Minister's Announcement Regarding Regulation of Herbal Traditional Medicine (pdf)

EHTPA's response to Department of Health press release - Next Steps for Complementary Medicine (pdf)

Save Our Herbs Campaign

1. Overwhelming support of herbal practitioners in support
   of statutory regulation. Despite some claims to the contrary, the vast majority of practitioners prescribing herbal medicines support statutory regulation. Full story (pdf)
2. Breaking News:
   Shortly after the Department of Health's publication consultation on our statutory regulation closed on November 16th, we were told that the DH had received an unprecedented 4000 replies. A fortnight or so later, this number was reassessed at 5000 and just before Christmas the DH told us that they had actually received over 6000 replies. We understand that the usual haul for a DH consultation like this is between ten and 80 responses. The DH spokesperson said "they would have to hire extra staff to deal with the huge response". Given the extraordinary complexity of the consultation document, the number of replies is truly extraordinary! Well done to everyone who responded and got their patients to reply. That’s terrific and clearly demonstrates the level of public interest in the delivery of herbal medicine.
3. The Campaign Continues
   Statutory regulation has been under consideration for a decade since the call in 2000 from the House of Lords’ Select Committee on Science and Technology for the statutory regulation of practitioners of herbal medicine and acupuncture. The Government itself backed statutory regulation of this sector in 2001: as recently as 2006 the DH website recorded that "The Government is committed to the statutory regulation of herbal medicine, acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine practitioners".
   Over the past eight years the Department of Health (DH) has initiated three working groups to look at implementing this policy. All three working parties strongly supported the aim of statutory regulation of this sector. In 2005, the DH ran a public consultation on the statutory regulation of herbal medicine and acupuncture. This registered a 98% response in favour of statutory regulation. As a consequence the DH published a timetable for the statutory regulation of this sector with a section 60 order (the legal process to bring this about) to be published later that year. This timetable has not been adhered to. The Government says it will make a decision on this matter but continues to dilly-dally. If statutory regulation does not go ahead with immediate effect, there will be a significant loss of consumer choice and huge damage to many small and medium sized businesses across the herbal supply and manufacturing sector as well as to many herbal practices throughout the UK. In taking so long to go ahead with statutory regulation and failing to be clear about exactly how it will take place, the Government is effectively undermining herbal practice in the UK.
   
4. Action Now!
   For this reason we urge you to write (yet again if you have already done so!) and to get your patients to write to their election candidates to say that the delay in conferring statutory regulation will seriously reduce patient choice and will undermine many small and medium businesses in the herbal practitioner and supply sector. To help you do this see the model letter we are providing here below (see item 3)which explains the issue in detail and which you can copy and give to your patients to send their MPs. We suggest that each person adds a sentence or two to say why he/she is a fan of herbal medicine.
5. Writing Letters to MPs/Candidates for Election
   As explained above, everyone should be getting their patients to write to their MPs and to help this we have written a standard for letter that could be used. We suggest that each correspondent adds a sentence or two to the letter to say why he/she is a supporter of herbal medicine. This will personalise the letter and give it more impact.
   Download writing letters to MPs/Election Candidates (pdf)
   Download writing letters to MPs/Election Candidates (MS Word)
6. EHTPA response to DOH Joint Consultation on the Report to Ministers from the DH Steering Group on the Statutory Regulation of Acupuncture, Herbal Medicine, Traditional Chinese Medicine and Other Traditional Medicine Systems Practised in the UK - click here to view (pdf)
7. Response by HPC to DH Public Consultation Document on the Statutory Regulation of Acupuncture, Herbal Medicine, Traditional Chinese Medicine and Other Traditional Medicine Systems practised in the UK (pdf)
8. Letter from EHTPA to the Business Secretary, Lord Mandelson (pdf)
9. Letter to Royal College of Physicians about Integrated Health Committee from Michael McIntyre chair of EHTPA (pdf)
10. Letter to Rt Hon Andy Burnham MP about the statutory regulation of practitioners of acupuncture, herbal medicine,
    traditional chinese medicine and other traditional medicine systems (pdf)
11. House of Lord's Debate on statutory regulation and EHTPA response.
    On January 7th the Chair of Sense about Science Lord Taverne, actively campaigning against our regulation, put down an oral question in the House of Lords asking "To ask Her Majesty's Government whether, following their proposals to regulate practitioners of alternative medicine, they plan to regulate astrologers". His rather puerile attempt at irony made no impact and Baroness Thornton, rather gracefully put Taverne in his place. Before asking the question Taverne gave an interview to the political website ePolitix. This was responded to by Michael McIntyre. The interview and the EHTPA response follow.
    Lord Taverne's proposal (pdf)
    Michael McIntyre's response (pdf)
12. David Colquhoun article in BMJ (pdf) and BMJ response (pdf)
    Nigel Hawkes article in BMJ (pdf)
13. A joint consultation on the Report to Ministers from the DH Steering Group on the Statutory Regulation of Practitioners of Acupuncture, Herbal Medicine, Traditional Chinese Medicine and Other Traditional Medicine Systems Practised in the UK - Click here to view Department of Health consultation
14. Report to Ministers from The Department of Health Steering Group on the Statutory Regulation of Practitioners of Acupuncture, Herbal Medicine, Traditional Chinese Medicine and Other Traditional Medicine Systems Practised in the UK May 2008 (Pittilo Report) - Click here to view Steering Group Report (pdf).

Other News About Pending Regulation

1. EHTPA response to interim report of the review of unlicensed meds-consultation questions (pdf)
2. RUM final interim report (pdf)