REGISTRATION AND REGULATION OF OSTEOPATHS. (Hansard, 21 February 1934)

§ Mr. BOOTHBY

I beg to move That leave be given to bring in a Bill to regulate the practice of osteopathy and to prescribe the qualifications of osteopathic practitioners. The object of the Bill is to set up a statutory board with the necessary powers and authority to compile a register of qualified osteopaths, and to provide for the admission to that register of persons who have followed a prescribed course of study and acquired a prescribed standard of professional competence. One of the most important aspects of the Bill is that it would give the qualified osteopath the right to employ a qualified anaesthetist without the latter falling under the ban of the General Medical Council. The case of Dr. Axham will probably be still in the minds of hon. Members, and I am sure that no hon. Member wishes for a repetition of that sort of thing. I emphasise the fact that under this Bill osteopaths do not seek inclusion in the medical profession. But, as hon. Members well know, many people nowadays believe that many diseases have their origin in maladjustments of the framework of the body, and that cures for those diseases can be effected by the skilled osteopath through manipulative thera- 344 peutics, which release certain natural forces in the body, and that these forces of themselves, without the aid of drugs or of surgery bring about cures.

The fact remains that for 30 years or more osteopathy has been practised in this country, and it has to its credit a very large number of striking successes. Nobody can deny that fact. That it has failures is equally obvious, but for my part I believe the failures to be due to the existence of so many palpable quacks practising osteopathy on the British public, under no form of regulation whatever. The purpose of the Bill is to eliminate those quacks. I wish to read a very brief quotation from a leading article which appeared in the "Times" recently following a long correspondence upon this question. It more or less sums up the results of that correspondence in the following passage: The medical profession in Great Britain is an association of private persons subject to regulations made by themselves, which regulations have been confirmed in some instances by Acts of Parliament. Any other private body may legally govern itself in like manner. The way is open, therefore, to the practitioners of osteopathy to set up their own organisation, to teach their own doctrine, and to ask for official recognition of such rules of training and conduct as they may choose to impose upon themselves. That is what the Bill sets out to do. The osteopaths ask to be recognised by the legislature with a view to their own proper regulation and also with a view to the protection of the British public. What I most sincerely submit to the House is that the practice of osteopathy in this country has now reached such dimensions that the time has arrived when this House ought to accept responsibility, either for prohibiting that practice altogether, or else for allowing osteopaths to submit themselves to proper regulation in the interests of the public.