Safe conduct?

Anyone can call themselves a herbalist, gain access to powerful herbal medicines and offer treatment to the public. There is no way of telling whether any practitioner is properly trained, whether the medicines they use are safe or whether they understand when to advise patients to consult a medical doctor.

That is the message from the Prince’s Foundation for Integrated Health, which has been campaigning for better public protection for more than a decade.

The Old Bailey trial has heard that pills alleged to have been sold by a Chinese Medicine shop contained a dangerous poison that, prosecutors claim, 'destroyed' a woman’s kidneys. Mrs Patricia Booth, a former civil servant, is still seriously ill several years later. She is dependent on dialysis and has suffered cancer that is said to have been caused by a toxic ingredient in the pills. Her only hope of returning to a normal life is a kidney transplant.

It was as long ago as 2001 that the Government first promised it would introduce statutory regulation. They promised it again in 2005 after a public consultation found overwhelming support. A year later, they set up a Steering Group, chaired by Professor Michael Pittilo, to: “prepare the ground for regulation”.

Instead, they launched yet another consultation which took place last year but has yet to report.

Foundation Fellow Professor David Peters, himself a doctor, said:

'The 2008 Pittilo Report warned of the risks to public safety and said that it was imperative to introduce statutory regulation of practitioners and controls over medicines. This appalling case demonstrates how right they were. Our hearts go out to Mrs Booth and her family.

'The Government’s conduct in repeatedly promising regulation but then failing to deliver is little short of bizarre. They must act now to ensure reasonable and effective protection for the public.'

ENDS

Notes to editors:

1.     For media enquiries and for interviews with Professor Peters, contact Pat Goodall, 01246 410707, 07789 871234, pat.goodall@fih.org.uk

2.     All other enquiries, please get in touch with contactus@fih.org.uk

3.     The Prince’s Foundation for Integrated Health was founded by HRH The Prince of Wales in 1993. Its principal aim is to make sure that everyone can access good integrated healthcare. More information about the Foundation can be found at www.fih.org.uk

4.     The trial of Ying ''Susan'' Wu, 48, of Holland-on-Sea, Essex, and shop owner Thin ''Patrick'' Wong, 47, of Southend continues at the Central Criminal Court.  They deny a series of charges relating to the sale of the medicine to Mrs Booth and further counts of possession of medicines without authorisation.

5.     In 2000, the respected House of Lords Select Committee for Science and Technology published a report into complementary and alternative medicine that recommended the statutory regulation of practitioners of herbal medicine and acupuncture. In 2001 the Government said it accepted these recommendations. Following a Steering Group report and a public consultation which found overwhelming support for regulation, the Government repeated its commitment to statutory regulation and published a timetable that would have seen it implemented by the end of 2005. In the event, no action was taken. Later another Steering Group was set up, chaired by Professor Michael Pittilo, Vice-Chancellor of Robert Gordon University. This reported in 2008. A second public consultation took place in the autumn of 2009 but has yet to report.

6.     Research by Ipsos Mori for the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), published January 2008, found that a quarter of the UK population use over the counter herbal medicines while millions of Britons visit practitioners.