Ian Cambray-Smith
Health Professions Manager, The Prince’s Foundation for Integrated Health, Health
I'm responsible for the conversation between The Prince's Foundation for Integrated Health and all healthcare professionals. I have particularly enjoyed our work on facilitating the regulation of the most popular complementary healthcare professions. Regulation sounds pretty boring but it is important. In the UK, orthodox medicine is statutorily regulated, which means that no-one can claim to be a doctor or nurse without having passed stringent examinations. The picture for complementary medicine is much more mixed - while chiropractors and osteopaths are statutorily regulated, many other therapies are not. This makes it hard for the public to distinguish between an experienced, responsible practitioner and someone who has little training.
Now a new regulator is in place, the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council, and complementary therapists will begin joining in 2008. The Prince's Foundation for Integrated Health played a big part in this achievement.
