Natural medicine is under threat from the TGA and other Government bodies. If you value your freedom of choice when it comes to health care, please read the following and write to your Local, State and Federal Members to put a stop to this type of control.
Important Industry Notice – TGA reforms with direct detrimental impact for complementary medicine health professionals
The Complementary Healthcare Council of Australia (the CHC), the leading expert association exclusively committed to a vital and sustainable complementary medicines industry, has been engaging with the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) on appropriate regulatory reform for complementary medicines (CMs) as part of the Governments’ Blueprint Reforms.
There are a number of regulatory changes and proposals impacting the CM industry that, if approved, will have direct detrimental impact for complementary medicine health professionals.
Of particular importance are the regulatory changes that will mean as of July 2014, practitioners will have reduced access to tools of the trade such as In-Vitro Diagnostic devices for example, bio-impedance analysis, live blood analysis, urine analysis and other in-clinic testing and monitoring devices or tools.
Additionally, the proposed changes to advertising of therapeutic goods means that practitioners will not be able to access advertising and educational material from Practitioner-Only complementary medicine companies. In effect, the proposed changes mean that all healthcare professionals would be treated as if they were consumers.
This specifically affects those professions not currently regulated under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law such as naturopaths, homeopathic practitioners, herbalists and nutritionists (other than Chinese herbal medicine practitioners registered by the Chinese Medicine Board of Australia). Under option 2, advertising to groups of practitioners who are not registered with NRAS, (administered by AHPRA) would be regulated in the same way as advertising to the general public.
Proposed action:
Of course how you respond is up to you. It is important you RESPOND!
A consultation submission cover sheet can be downloaded by clicking here
We suggest that it is important to highlight Naturopathic practitioners deal with wellness care and often in clinic testing is to look at Wellness balance rather than diagnose illness – and that it should be maintained as an important part of the Natural medicine tradition.
We suggest you highlight Natural Medicine practitioners have an important role to play as an intermediary between Therapeutic advertising and facilitating public health empowerment.
We suggest you write a letter for your patients to send to their local member. This is urgent and it is a political matter.
To download a sample letter click here.