Dear Herbal Supporter
We ask you to put pressure on the Government to fulfil its firm pledge to provide
statutory regulation for herbal practitioners (SR) without which the public will be at
risk, many small businesses will be imperilled and the provision of this very popular
form of medicine from herbal experts will be undermined. You can get the Government
to deliver SR by writing to your MP as soon as possible. To help you do this here are the
essential facts in the letter we are providing. Please would you be kind enough to
address, sign and send this letter to your MP or, if you prefer, please use the
information provided to write your own? The future of herbal practice depends on this
campaign. Thank very much you for doing this!
Michael McIntyre
On behalf of the European Herbal and Traditional Medicine Practitioners Association
Dear
On February 16th 2011, the Secretary of State for Health announced the UK herbalists
were to be statutorily regulated (SR) subject to the usual parliamentary procedures. He
said that the Department of Health (DH) would aim to have this in place by 2012.
Two years on the DH has failed to publish the draft legislation and there is no sign of
progress. This delay is deeply damaging to the development and delivery of safe herbal
medicine practice across the UK.
The key arguments for SR remain as strong as ever!
 The decision to introduce SR for the herbal profession was taken after two public
consultations that demonstrated massive public support for SR. These were the result
of years of discussion that saw SR backed by two DH Committees under independent
chairmanship.
 Herbal medicine is very popular. A survey commissioned by the government
medicines regulator, the MHRA, showed more than a quarter of the population had
bought herbal medicines over-the-counter in the previous two years and that one in
twenty had consulted a practitioner of traditional Chinese Medicine whilst around one
in twelve had consulted a practitioner of Western herbal medicine.
 Well regulated professional guidance on the use of herbal medicines will make an
important contribution to public health as the NHS budget is subject to increasing
pressure and people will increasingly choose to manage their own health care.
 The Government appears to be failing to heed the implications of the recent
horsemeat scandal. Without clear professional standards the supply chain for
unregulated herbal medicines, particularly from overseas, is not assured. The SR of
herbalists will ensure that the public are protected from poorly trained or bogus
practitioners and from substandard herbal remedies.SR will identify professionals
able to assure the quality of herbal treatment for the public. Without SR the public is
at considerable risk.
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SR will support high quality professional education that has been developed in this
sector. Without SR these hard won standards will be undermined as there will be no
uniform standard of training across the board.
A perceived need to fit in with EU legislation and not grant ‘authorised healthcare
professional’ status to herbal practitioners in order to maintain the medical status quo
is highly questionable. The UK Government could readily resist pressure from
Brussels if it had the will to do so.
If SR fails to go ahead there will be a loss of a wide range of herbal medicines
supplied by practitioners to their patients. Full implementation of the new European
Traditional Herbal Medicine Directive in April 2011 saw the end of practitioners
prescribing herbal medicines made by manufacturers and herbal suppliers for
prescription to individual patients. This includes all finished products such as
medicinal herbal pills, tablets, capsules, dried herb mixtures and medicinal herbal
ointments made up for individual patients by third-party suppliers. Also halted were
all third-party herbal prescription services that supply individualised herbal
prescriptions (including those comprising tinctures and dried herbs) to named patients
at the practitioner’s request. Over the past 40 years this mode of supply has become
an essential part of herbal practice in the UK and many practitioners have been totally
reliant on such services. Without SR, all that remains are herbal medicines prepared
by practitioners from their own premises. Many patients have already been unable to
obtain their usual medicines. The loss of this facility will ultimately put many
practitioners and several of their suppliers out of business. At a time when we are
teetering on the edge of a triple dip recession, SR will provide much needed support
to thousands of small and medium enterprises (practitioners and their suppliers).
The Secretary of State declared that the decision to take forward the SR of herbal
practitioners marked ‘a significant milestone’. Please can you do all you can to urge the
Government to make good its firm undertaking to bring in this vital legislation without
further delay!
Yours sincerely,
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