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Society of Physiotherapy looks at the Bill with some envy and would like equal protection to be given to the short titles of all the professions involved. If that could be achieved it would be in the public interest.My hon. Friend the Member for Cambridgeshire, North-East mentioned the disciplinary procedures in the Bill, which are very welcome. Physiotherapists feel that they do not have sufficient powers to discipline their own profession or, for example, to investigate the claims of overseas practitioners in physiotherapy. Again, he is setting out procedures that will be helpful to the profession and we should like that to be reflected in the Minister's remarks. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Cambridgeshire, North-East and the working party of osteopaths for their work. I urge all the professions practising such techniques to get together so that we can set down new regulations for them all as soon as possible, as that will be in the public interest.
10.24 am
Ms. Liz Lynne (Rochdale) : I extend my support and that of my party to the Bill, which is a most welcome response to the King's Fund report on osteopathy and the subsequent Bill that was introduced by Lord Walton in another place in December 1991. I also thank the hon. Member for Cambridgeshire, North-East (Mr. Moss) for his work thus far on the Bill. I hope that he steers it through the House to a successful conclusion.
Osteopathy came to Britain at the turn of the century and the first attempt to put it on a statutory footing was in 1931. Just over 60 years later it looks as if we shall at last be successful--another fine example of the British Parliament responding rapidly to new ideas and changing circumstances.
Lady Olga Maitland (Sutton and Cheam) : I thank the hon. Lady for her comments on the Bill, and must add to her reflections about its popularity. A MORI poll has shown that osteopathy is the most popular complementary medicine, and 63 per cent. of those polled were very satisifed and only 9 per cent. dissatisfied.
Ms. Lynne : I am grateful to the hon. Lady. Osteopaths responded to Parliament's inaction by establishing registering bodies and it is to their credit that the profession is among the leading advocates of statutory regulation.
The Bill is of particular importance, as it represents the first statutory recognition of the role of complementary medicine in the health of the nation. I hope and expect it to become a model for future Bills.
It is well known that the Chiropractic Advancement Association is hoping for official regulation soon after the Bill is enacted. Initially, it was thought that chiropractors could be included in the Bill introduced in December 1991. The Government have given some indications that they might soon be recognised, but I am a little concerned about the statement by Baroness Hooper, in a Lords debate on complementary medicine in May 1990, that an appropriate level of maturity is required on the part of the relevant professions before legislation would be considered. I should have thought that when professions are immature they can do the most harm and that that is when they need the most regulation. While I recognise the practical difficulties of proceeding along the path of
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regulation too soon, I hope that the Government will take a more active role to bring the various complementary therapies into a statutory framework.The key points in the Bill are those dealing with the registration and education of osteopaths. Both aspects of the Bill are greatly to be welcomed. I am particularly pleased about the proposal that the General Osteopathic Council may require osteopaths to have further training after registration.
While it is clear that only accredited qualifications will be acceptable, and that educational establishments will have independent assessors, the Bill does not state that such establishments will be accredited. That would seem to be a logical extension of the existing proposals and it might clear up any confusion for anyone wishing to train as an osteopath.
In addition to my general comments, I have some specific remarks to make on the Bill. The Bill contains no definition of osteopathy. Only after detailed consultation was it decided that there were sufficient differences between osteopathy and chiropractic for them not to be covered by the same Bill. A definition is important because, without it, I cannot see how an effective code of practice can be established.
I should like the general council that the Bill will establish to ensure that, in drawing up the code of practice, there are the widest possible consultations with users of the service and their representatives. Once produced, the code of practice should be made easily available to members of the public, preferably free or via public libraries, but, if necessary, at a reasonable cost as stated in the Bill. The Bill does not say whether a "reasonable" cost is reasonable in the view of the council or the user.
I naturally agree with the establishment of a register of osteopaths, but, as in the case of the code of practice, the register should be easily available for inspection. The Bill allows for that to happen, but does not say where the register will be available, although I assume that it may be at the general council's offices. Perhaps consideration should be given to making it available at major libraries. I should also like to see a provision in the Bill or a declaration from the general council stating that osteopaths must display their registration at their place of work and clearly indicate their category of registration.
There should also be further protection for prospective patients. Last year in the United States, for instance, guidelines for quality assurance and practice were laid down. The document that was produced ran to some 200 pages. In particular, it was recommended that practitioners provide a written diagnosis for the patients and tell them what to do if the treatment does not work in two weeks and when to ask for a second opinion. In addition, particular emphasis should be placed on making it clear to patients how a complaint should be made.
With so many functions proposed in the Bill, I am concerned that the general council may not have enough resources to carry them all out effectively. I presume that the council is expected to be self-financing and I am therefore a little worried that it may have difficulties performing all its tasks. Experience in America, where legislation has been in place for more than 20 years, is that
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practitioners do not have the time or training to administer such a body effectively. I hope that that question will be dealt with in this country.Could some light be shed on whether cranial osteopathy will be covered by the Bill? An article in The Guardian on 12 January says that there is some debate among osteopaths themselves about its value.
Despite the points that I have raised, the Bill is a major step forward and points the way for many complementary therapies. I urge all hon. Members to support it.
10.31 am
Mr. Toby Jessel (Twickenham) : I must declare an interest as a patron of the National Back Pain Association, the headquarters of which is in Teddington in my constituency. I warmly congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Cambridgeshire, North-East (Mr. Moss) on this excellent Bill. I wish it every success and I hope that it will go on to the statute book without delay. However, my hon. Friend's speech dealt largely with internal, structural and technical matters to do with the osteopathy profession. It was almost as if he had received a large amount of briefing from that profession. It is important for the House to see the wood as well as the trees with which he dealt so extensively. I know that he will not mind if I say that much of what he said was on Committee points.
The whole purpose of osteopathy is to relieve back pain in people. Osteopaths are not an end in themselves but a means to an end. Back pain is a scourge and a pestilence which afflicts millions of our fellow citizens, including the Under-Secretary of State for Health, my hon. Friend the Member for Bolton, West (Mr. Sackville), and myself.
Lady Olga Maitland : May I add to my hon. Friend's comments the fact that in 1979, 11.5 million working days were lost through back pain? That was a great loss to the country and cost our social security system enormous sums.
Mr. Jessel : I am grateful to my hon. Friend. I believe that the figure is even greater. The figure that I have seen is 230,000 people per working day. Multiplied by the number of working days, that comes to considerably more than 11.5 million. There is doubtless a substantial loss to the country in terms of days off work, and I believe that, proportionately, women are affected even more than men.
A huge amount of pain and discomfort is caused, but because the causes are complicated and it is not a "glamour" welfare cause such as a disease affecting children, heart attacks or cancer, which cause death-- [Interruption.] It is a little trying for me to have my hon. Friend the Member for Cambridgeshire, North-East carrying on a conversation just four yards away from me.
Because back pain affects such a large number of people and is not a "glamour" welfare cause afflicting children or resulting in death, it is difficult to get the body politic or the public generally to pay as much attention to it as it deserves, despite the large number of people whom it affects. That is why the debate on the Bill is welcome, even if it is somewhat narrow. I happen to go to a chiropractor and I think that they are at least as good as osteopaths, if not better. I am sorry that they could not be included in the Bill, but I hope that there will be as little delay as possible before a Bill is introduced on chiropractic.
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The Government's White Paper, "The Health of the Nation", published last year, singled out five key areas for priority action : coronary heart disease and strokes ; cancer ; mental illness ; AIDS ; and accidents. However, the document also referred to five other candidates with a strong claim to key area status next : rehabilitation ; the health of elderly people ; asthma ; drug misuse ; and back pain. The inclusion of back pain in that list followed a meeting between Mr. Stanley Grundy CBE, founder of the National Back Pain Association, his director Dr. Mervyn Bryn Jones, Lord Joseph and myself with my right hon. Friend the Member for Bristol, West (Mr. Waldegrave), the Secretary of State for Health in the last Parliament. The meeting was to stress the great importance of back pain.I hope that my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State will be kind enough to explain the position of that second grouping of five priority areas, and say what he thinks the Government can do to focus attention on it and to make progress as fast as possible in dealing with the scourge of back pain.
My hon. Friend the Minister has shown a tremendous interest in the problem of back pain, having attended and addressed the association's conference in central London last November. He has also seen Mr. Grundy several times, and I understand that my hon. Friend hopes, within his busy programme, to find time to visit the association's headquarters before long.
The association promotes research, whether by osteopaths, doctors, or chiropractors ; it establishes branches throughout the country to promote interest in back pain, to provide means by which people can exercise, and to spread information ; and it publishes educational material--such as a most useful recent manual for nurses on the correct way to lift patients. The national health service suffers a considerable loss of nurses' time when they hurt their backs lifting patients. I understand that 5,000 copies of that manual have already been sold.
Can my hon. Friend the Minister make it clear that general practitioners who are health service budget holders may use their budgets to refer patients both to osteopaths and to chiropractors? Will he also make clear the position in respect of value added tax on fees paid privately, whether under insurance policies or otherwise, both to osteopaths and to chiropractors? For many years the Department of Health has discussed that question with the Treasury, which decides in the light of legislation whether VAT should be attached to such fees. The Treasury has sought advice from the Department as to what is and is not deemed medical, because that affects whether or not VAT is applied. The Department has in turn referred the matter to a somewhat moribund body called the Council for Professions Supplementary to Medicine. The medical professions as well as the supplementary professions are represented on that council, and for years that body has put a stop on exempting osteopathy and chiropractic from VAT.
Mr. Moss : My hon. Friend has introduced a most important point. I wonder if he realises that osteopaths are obliged to charge VAT on their bills to patients while physiotherapists are not?
Mr. Jessel : I am grateful for my hon. Friend's clarification. It is nonsensical that physiotherapists approved by that council do not have to charge VAT while
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osteopaths and chiropractors, who are not so approved, must do so. I hope that the Department will indicate that if the Bill becomes law it will draw that matter to the attention of the Treasury so that it can be reviewed without delay.If the Bill is passed and osteopaths become, in the eyes of the law, members of a profession, I hope that it will not go to their heads. In Britain, professionalism has an up side and a down side. The up side is that members of any profession--barristers, solicitors, accountants, doctors or dentists--endeavour to uphold standards. The down side is that they become somewhat introverted, in that they care about one another's good opinion rather than that of the public. Barristers care mainly about the good opinion of other barristers, doctors about the good opinion of other doctors, and so on. They tend to assume that qualification, which is essential in any profession, is so all-important that nothing else much matters. It is thought that a person who is qualified must be good and one who is not qualified must be no good at all.
Professional qualification is a necessary condition, but it is not a sufficient condition for professional competence. It remains vital for any professional, if he or she is to be good at his or her work, to possess flair, zest, and insight, among other gifts. I hope that there will not be so much harping on professional qualifications to the extent that those other qualities are played down. That would not be in the interests of the public. I hope that osteopaths will regard their professional status as a means of improvement and not take it to mean that everything has now been done. It is only a step. 10.45 am
Mr. David Atkinson (Bournemouth, East) : I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Cambridgeshire, North-East (Mr. Moss) on his good fortune in the ballot and on his choice of Bill. I was grateful for his invitation to be a sponsor, because, as he knows, I am particularly interested in the greater recognition of another so-called complementary profession--chiropractic. From my personal experience and that of many of my constituents and others, I am as fully convinced of the benefits of chiropractic as I am of osteopathy. I am privileged to have the Anglo- European College of Chiropractic in my constituency, which I hope right hon. and hon. Members will visit.
Both osteopathy and chiropractic were founded in the belief that many everyday disorders are caused by spinal defects impeding the work of our immune system. I welcome the Bill not only for the undoubted benefits that it will bring to patients in the proper regulation, registration and, above all, recognition of osteopaths but because it will pave the way for a similar Bill for chiropractors, which the King's Fund working party will also draft--based on what we hope will be the successful outcome of this Bill. I hope that it will be taken on board by one of my ballot-lucky right hon. or hon. Friends in the next Session.
I take this opportunity to express my deep regret that the complementary professions have been denied recognition for so long because of the failure of successive Governments to pass appropriate legislation on their behalf. Instead, each of those professions is being advised to pursue its own Bill, such as that before us. That will take years, which I find totally unacceptable. I am certain that
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any Government initiative to legislate for other uncontroversial complementary professions, given their ever-growing use and appreciation by patients--who find them successful where NHS- prescribed conventional surgery or drugs have failed--would be widely welcomed. Unfortunately, as my hon. Friend the Member for Twickenham (Mr. Jessel) implied, the so-called orthodox professions, as represented on the Medical Research Council and the Council for Professions Supplementary to Medicine, continue to withhold their sanction and support--thus sabotaging proper recognition of those who are properly qualified, to the detriment of patients.In so doing, they are allowing unqualified cowboys and unscrupulous quacks to do untold damage to those members of the public who use them, and who find it extremely difficult to obtain legal redress. It is time to end that closed shop in the medical profession, which inhibits such competition.
I very much hope that my hon. Friend the Minister will stop sitting on the fence of Government neutrality towards the complementary professions. He could do that by renewing his Department's grant to the Research Council for Complementary Medicine ; its recent termination is incomprehensible, given the enormous sums that are rightly spent on orthodox medical research and the amounts spent by other European Governments on research into complementary medicines. Moreover, the termination of the grant is contrary to the recommendations made some years ago by the Department's own working group on back pain.
My hon. Friend the Minister could also announce that the Government now intend to extend the Professions Supplementary to Medicines Act 1960 to include complementary medicines, and he could invite the research council to make appropriate recommendations to him. As my hon. Friend the Member for Twickenham pointed out, after 33 years there is now an overwhelming case for a review of the Act. Alternatively, my hon. Friend the Minister could announce a Government inquiry into the most popular complementary medicines, to subject them to scientific validation with the ultimate aim of integrating orthodox and complementary medicines. Such integration has already taken place in the Netherlands.
My hon. Friend the Member for Cambridgeshire, North-East has made an outstanding case for the benefits to patients that would undoubtedly result from the legislation. The statutory recognition of osteopaths would encourage more patients to use their
services--especially now that fund-holding GPs can pay for them out of their own budgets : I commend the action taken last year by the Minister's predecessor, my hon. Friend the Member for Loughborough (Mr. Dorrell), to allow them to do so. The Bill will, I hope, encourage health authorities, hospital staff and doctors to work more closely with the osteopathic profession. As osteopathy, chiropractic and other such therapies do not require such expensive equipment as national health service treatment, and also do not require increasingly expensive drugs, their statutory recognition would result in enormous savings in the health service, despite patients having to bear the cost of treatment.
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My hon. Friend the Member for Twickenham rightly enjoined the Minister to urge our right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer to consider whether the cost of alternative treatment should be exempt from VAT.Mr. William Cash (Stafford) : My hon. Friend and I have travelled down the path of complementary medicine for many years. Does he agree that the new arrangements for fund holders could be used to enable patients to receive the complementary and alternative treatment that they want through their local GPs? I believe that that is already happening to some extent. Appropriate arrangements could be set up with complementary and alternative practitioners.
Mr. Atkinson : That is still a back-door method. My hon. Friend and I have been working for years to try to bring about proper recognition of complementary medicine : I pay tribute to the work that has been done to enable Bills such as this--and, we hope, subsequent Bills--to establish such recognition. He was engaged in that work long before he became a Member of Parliament.
I hope that the Bill will also encourage companies to become more aware of the opportunities for them to refer employees to osteopaths or chiropractors. Widespread absenteeism resulting from back pain is costing the national economy an enormous amount. I am sure that if the Bill is passed, more and more operators of private health insurance schemes will be encouraged to reimburse subscribers for the cost of osteopathic treatment. I also believe that increasing use of osteopathy and other complementary treatments will lead to greater accuracy in the diagnosis of disorders that still baffle the NHS, such as allergies and ME.
I hope that the Bill will be given an unimpeded passage through both Houses. Let me again congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Cambridgeshire, North-East--and Lord Walton on his pioneering work in introducing a similar Bill last year in the other place. I also pay tribute to the work of the King's Fund.
I hope that a similar Bill to deal with chiropractic will follow this one-- or that, better still, the Government will present a Bill to give proper statutory recognition to all the complementary medical professions, for which an increasing number of our constituents are voting with their feet.
10.54 am
Mr. David Tredinnick (Bosworth) : There is no doubt in my mind that, indirectly, I owe my seat in the House to the work of chiropractors and osteopaths. Fifteen years ago, I suffered an accident and broke three vertebrae in my back. Having lain in bed for several months, I was put back together by such practitioners, and I therefore owe them a particular personal debt.
I note with interest that other hon. Members--for instance, my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State and my hon. Friends the Members for Twickenham (Mr. Jessel), for Bolton, North-East (Mr. Thurnham) and for Edmonton (Dr. Twinn)--suffer from back problems. My hon. Friend the Member for Edmonton mentioned the impact of the European Communities (Amendment) Bill : having looked at next week's business, I think that hon. Members on both sides
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of the House may need the services of osteopaths and chiropractors, but not every Conservative Member may agree with that.Apart from the treatment that I received at the time of my accident, the treatment that I have received in subsequent years has been very important. My message to the public is that the disciplines of osteopathy and chiropractic can be enormously beneficial. I also speak as treasurer of the all-party parliamentary group for alternative and complementary medicine. I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Stafford (Mr. Cash), who is sitting beside me on the Back Benches
Mr. Tredinnick : I had better not comment on that.
However, I pay tribute to my hon. Friend's work on alternative medicine, and to that of my hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth, East (Mr. Atkinson). I believe that my hon. Friend the Member for Stafford and I were the only two Members of Parliament who attended the launch of the King's Fund by the Prince of Wales in December 1991. We were also involved in the attempt to take Lord Walton's Bill through the House of Commons ; it fell at the last general election. I welcome the Bill particularly because I think that it will shake out the tiny minority of charlatans in the profession. My hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth, East referred to unqualified quacks, and there are certainly a few unscrupulous people around. The Bill will also provide an understandable framework, and will encourage the use of osteopathy to relieve the pain described by my hon. Friend the Member for Twickenham. I understand that he had an accident that hurt him quite badly, and he has probably suffered considerable pain over the past two weeks.
The Bill will also give confidence to people who were wondering how to solve their back problems. Only yesterday, I spoke to a senior Canadian Member of Parliament who suffers from muscular and skeletal pain. I asked him why he did not see an osteopath or chiropractor. He said, "I am not sure about these people ; they are not regulated." That is the nub of the problem : if people were made confident by regulation, more of them would take advantage of such treatment. We have already heard from my hon. Friend the Member for Sutton and Cheam (Lady Olga Maitland) about the large number of people who are attracted to osteopathy, and I believe that, with regulation, many more will follow.
In my experience, GPs have no great understanding of back problems unless they are specialists. A close supporter of mine in the general election campaign suddenly developed great back pain. She was advised to rest for two weeks, which was not possible during the campaign. She went to a osteopath who was a chiropractor, and within a day some relief had been given and she was back on the road.
Just after Christmas, my five-year-old daughter was acting out the part of a children's play with a big cushion on her head when she suddenly developed acute pain. She was checked by a doctor who, fortunately, found nothing serious. The doctor said, "The problem will go away with time ; children at this age are very resilient." I took her to an osteopath in Leinster square who was open on the Saturday after the new year, and two osteopaths kindly
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treated her. She came away an hour later and has not mentioned that back pain again. Those are practical demonstrations of how people can benefit from such treatment.Over the years, there has been a marked shift of opinion towards alternative and complementary medicine and osteopathy. In its 1986 report, the British Medical Association dismissed alternative medicine as a passing fashion. A number of surveys showed otherwise, and gradually medical opinion has shifted ground. For example, a 1986 Which ? survey suggested that osteopathy was the most widely used complementary therapy, and 82 per cent. of patients interviewed claimed to have been cured or improved by the treatment.
Another Which ? survey last November reported that each year one in four readers visited an alternative practitioner, which includes osteopathy-- twice as many as the 1986 survey--and were highly satisfied. Four out of five users claim to have been improved or cured by alternative treatments ; three out of four would use this form of treatment again.
Those findings confirm the results of the 1989 MORI survey, which revealed that 93 per cent. of users were satisfied with chiropractic treatment and 83 per cent. of users were satisfied with osteopathy. My hon. Friend the Member for Sutton and Cheam dropped 20 per cent. when she gave her figure. The figure that I have is 83 per cent., not 63 per cent. Some 80 per cent. were satisfied with homoeopathic treatment. The MORI survey showed that homoeopathy, osteopathy and acupuncture were the most widely used alternative medicines.
Mr. George Kynoch (Kincardine and Deeside) : My hon. Friend has used the term "alternative medicine" several times. Does he intend to use the term "complementary medicine"? Many of the forms of treatment that he has mentioned are complementary rather than alternative.
Mr. Tredinnick : My hon. Friend is absolutely correct. I have used the term "alternative medicine" as the shortened version of "alternative and complementary medicine". He will recall that I referred to the fact that I am treasurer of the all-party group for alternative and complementary medicine. There is a debate about what is alternative and what is complementary, but I certainly speak for both.
Last November's Which? survey quoted a study in which four out of five medical students said that they would like some form of alternative training incorporated into their course.
I argue that the Bill is not the end of a road but very much the beginning of a new relationship between alternative and complementary medicine, including osteopathy, and the health service. I am delighted to see my old and hon. Friend the Under-Secretary in his place on the Front Bench. [Hon. Members :-- "Not too old."] I think that I can count him as an old friend ; we have known each other for 25 years.
I firmly believe that the Bill is the start of a new relationship between alternative and complementary medicine and the health service. With the greater recognition and regulation that the Bill will give, it should be possible to achieve greater integration of the work of osteopaths and other alternative practitioners within the health service.
The previous Under-Secretary, my hon. Friend the Member for Loughborough (Mr. Dorrell), made a
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significant contribution towards achieving that integration when he ruled in the last Parliament that GP fund holders could employ alternative practitioners, which of course includes osteopaths, if they took clinical responsibility. I hope that my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary will see fit to go further and make it possible for other general practitioners to use the services of alternative and complementary practitioners. I believe that that is very important. I tell my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary, in the presence of its chairman, my hon. Friend the Member for Stafford, that the all-party parliamentary group aims to achieve full integration of most of the various alternative disciplines in the health service.The House will consider other Bills in the future. At one stage, chiropractors hoped that their work would be included in the Bill. The different schools of chiropractic, such as the McTimoney school and others, have taken tremendous strides towards bringing their disciplines together in an understandable framework.
Mr. David Atkinson indicated assent.
Mr. Tredinnick : My hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth, East nods in assent.
They have put their house in order, as requested by the Department, and I hope that the next Bill will be for chiropractors.
Other disciplines such as acupuncture may benefit from such regulation. My hon. Friend the Member for Edmonton referred to physiotherapy, which is important. In addition, there are disciplines such as aromatherapy. I have the largest factory of aromatherapy and essential oils and the largest practice in the world in my constituency. I opened its new premises yesterday. It used to work out of an attic in a disused hosiery factory, but it now has a splendid new building. It is training not only lay practitioners who express an interest but is teaching medical practitioners ; nurses are being taught these skills. The work of aromatherapy is relevant to osteopathy because before treatment an osteopath can use oils such as roman chamomile, juniper berry, lavender and sweet marjoram to relax and warm up muscles.
Mr. Alan Duncan (Rutland and Melton) : Ooh, nice!
Mr. Tredinnick : I thought that my hon. Friend the Member for Rutland and Melton (Mr. Duncan) might find this amusing, but it is not amusing to someone suffering from pain.
My hon. Friend makes the point well : any hon. Member who had talked about osteopathy or chiropractory in the House 10 years ago would have been laughed at. I say to my hon. Friend the Member for Rutland and Melton, as I strike him with a rubber mallet, that these disciplines, which may seem a little weird to the majority, will eventually become mainstream.
Some say that by iridology, the study of the colours of eyes and shape of pupils, one can diagnose different ailments that affect the body. I venture to suggest that that and phrenology, the study of the shape and condition of the head, will eventually come within the scope of the health service.
My hon. Friend the Under-Secretary will find a tremendous opportunity to save costs if he pursues this route, because it has been found that alternative
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practitioners who are medically qualified issue far fewer prescriptions. Furthermore, homoeopathic prescriptions are less expensive, and homoeopathic preparations are increasingly available in the huge number of homoeopathic shops that are bursting into bloom all over the country as a result of public demand. This move is market-led--I say that although I do not want to upset the hon. Member for Makerfield (Mr. McCartney), whom I have in the past seen stand on a bench to make a point.The serious point to all this is that cost savings can be made, much happiness can be given, and many problems can be solved by alternative and complementary medicine, including osteopathy. I appeal to the House to take the alternative and complementary medicine much more seriously than it has been taken. I welcome the Bill, which is a major step forward. I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Cambridgeshire, North-East (Mr. Moss), and look forward to the successful passage of the Bill through all its stages.
11.11 am
Mr. William Cash (Stafford) : I join other hon. Members in congratulating my hon. Friend the Member for Cambridgeshire, North-East (Mr. Moss) not only on promoting the Bill but on the way in which he has tackled the subject. Over the past nearly 20 years, I have been the legal adviser in relation to complementary and alternative medicine. I started in the days when, as my hon. Friend the Member for Bosworth (Mr. Tredinnick) said, one could not talk about it easily because people either did not know about it or thought that it was based on quackery, which it was not.
My hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth, East (Mr. Atkinson) played an important part in the beginnings of the objective analysis of complementary medicine. He served on the Committee--which took evidence--that examined a private Bill, in which I also happened to be involved, back in about 1975. That Bill was aimed at driving acupuncturists out of business and was strongly attacked. My hon. Friend listened to the cross-examination of witnesses from both the medical profession and acupuncturists. The Committee unanimously concluded that the acupuncturists had a good case. I give that as an example of the way in which Parliament has helped to break down the barriers and I pay tribute to my hon. Friend and to other distinguished Members who have joined me in the all-party group on complementary and alternative medicine, of which I have the honour to be joint chairman with the right hon. Earl Baldwin of Bewdley. I should declare an interest in that I give continuing legal advice on these matters.
Let me also pay tribute to Simon Fielding, who is here in the House under the Gallery. I have known him for a long time and those who know about the Bill and the work that he has put into ensuring that osteopathy should be
Mr. Deputy Speaker (Mr. Geoffrey Lofthouse) : Order. I hesitate to interrupt the hon. Gentleman, but he has been here a long time and should be aware that he is not supposed to refer to people in the Gallery.
Mr. Cash : I have made my point, but I withdraw the reference on that basis.
I congratulate the Department on the way in which it has moved in relation to complementary and alternative
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medicine. The atmosphere has changed greatly and much diligent and effective thinking has been given to those matters. I am delighted that my hon. Friend the Minister will be giving the Bill the additional support that it will require to ensure that it gets on to the statute book.I have no intention or desire to go through all the points that have been made by my hon. Friends the Members for Cambridgeshire, North-East, for Bosworth, for Bournemouth, East, and for Twickenham (Mr. Jessel). However, I wish to get one or two points on the record because there has been a significant change in the policy on osteopathy over the past 20 years. Back in the mid-1970s, the BMA handbook said that doctors should have nothing to do with osteopaths because osteopathy was not a science. This was put in extremely strong language. The General Medical Council took a rather different view. The Bill is a testament to the work of osteopaths and demonstrates how attitudes in the medical profession have changed substantially in the past 20 years.
The BMA set up an inquiry seven years ago in which there was a general attack on complementary and alternative medicine. I tabled an early-day motion, which about 150 Members of Parliament supported, and we saw off that attack pretty well. I do not wish to cast aspersions on the medical peofession in this context because there has been a learning curve. There was bias, but there has been a significant change in the attitude of doctors towards osteopathy and other complementary therapies.
I intervened in the speech of my hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth, East to speak about general practitioner fund-holding arrangements to which I strongly believe that serious attention should be given. We had an interesting meeting the other day with Baroness Cumberlege, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health, in which some of those ideas were developed. We have already heard questions about whether grants could or should be made. The withdrawal of grant aid was not a sensible move, and I strongly opposed it. However, through the aegis of the Medical Research Council, further funds could and should be made available. Osteopathy, along with chiropractic, acupuncture and herbal remedies, has to be taken seriously. Therefore, we must give those sectors a reasonable amount of help because they have nothing to fall back on. It is not as though they have the large funds of the Medical Research Council behind them. Those who know just how large those funds are will agree that reasonable help should be given, and my urgent plea is that it should be, because that would be in the interests of everybody, including the medical profession. My hon. Friend the Member for Kincardine and Deeside (Mr. Kynoch) is a doctor.
Mr. Cash : I am sorry. I thought that my hon. Friend was a doctor.
Mr. Kynoch : I should declare my interest. My wife is a doctor. I am sure that my hon. Friend will agree that the medical profession has accepted osteopathy because it is seen as a complementary rather than, as it was portrayed years ago, an alternative medicine. Is not that an important point?
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