Save Our Herbs

The Department of Health is running a Consultation to find out whether people think that traditional medicine practitioners should be regulated, or not. This will have important consequences and will determine the level of your and your family’s access to herbal medicine in the future! The consultation considers Practitioners of Acupuncture, Herbal Medicine, Traditional Chinese Medicine and Other Traditional Medicine Systems Practised in the UK

WHY SUPPORT STATUTORY REGULATION?

After April 2011 under the new E.U. Directive THMPD the public will only be able to buy licensed herbal remedies. Currently very few products have Traditional Herbal Registration (THR). The MHRA has up to date information on this. Any other herbal preparations you need will have to obtained from a herbalist. However, the herbalist will only be able to supply you with preparations made up by third party manufacturers if they are regulated. The legislation allows “authorised healthcare professionals” to dispense third party medicines. Without Statutory Regulation, practitioners cannot be considered as such.

The commissioning of third party medicines is a core part of many herbalists’ dispensing practice. Losing this will seriously limit the way they practice and may result in them going out of business. Supplying such preparations is also an important source of income for many of the manufacturers. Losing this income stream as well as a diminishing customer base as Traditional Medicine Practitioners go out of business could result in the manufacturers going out of business.

All of this would ultimately result in less practitioners, causing reduced access to herbal medicines and a reduction in the variety of traditional medical systems available. With regulation, you will also know your practitioner is properly trained, up-to-date and operating to a strict code of ethics.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

RESPOND TO THE CONSULTATION – closes on Monday 16th November – DO IT NOW!

There are 24 questions and they’re not all easy to answer. But don’t be daunted – give it a go – you don’t have to answer them all. At the very least, answer question 24 and tell the government, in your own words, that you wish to preserve your right to access the medical tradition of your choice. Click the following link to go directly to the consultation - Respond to the consultation

For more advice on responding to the consultation, suggested responses and sample letters, please consult the links in the advice box – top right.

Engage with YOUR elected representatives.

Write or e-mail your MSP and MP registering your concerns about what’s happening.
Ask to speak to them in person to discuss what they can do to represent those concerns.

Still not sure?

Ask us – we’ll try to explain the issues as best we can
Click here for lots of links to the documents that shaped the process so far.
Ask your MSP and/or MP – tell them you are aware of the threat and ask them to explain what’s going on and why it’s come to this.