HC Deb 01 December 1988 vol 142 c379W
Mr. Ashley

To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) if he will take steps to establish a committee of practitioners of orthodox medicine, and acceptable forms of alternative medicine, to monitor unorthodox treatments given to sufferers of multiple sclerosis;

(2) if he will establish a registration scheme for practitioners who charge for treatment which does not comply with established practice in the medical profession, or other established bodies.

Mrs. Currie

No. Practitioners registered with the General Medical Council can offer to use any form of therapy, including any of the alternative therapies, if they consider it to be in the interests of their patients and they feel competent to provide it. Practitioners of alternative therapies who are not registered with the General Medical Council, and who are therefore not eligible to work by law within the NHS, can offer their services privately, subject only to those provisions of statute and civil law which apply.

Mr. Ashley

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what evidence he has that applied kinesiology can benefit patients suffering from multiple sclerosis.

Mrs. Currie

None whatever.

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