| Home > About CMRB > President's Message |
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PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE |
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Chinese medicine has been practised in Victoria since the first part of the nineteenth century. More recently and until 30 December 2001 acupuncture was regulated via skin penetration regulations administered by local governments. After an extensive process of consultation from 1995, Victoria, from 1 January 2002 became the first, and is still the only, state or territory of Australia in which the practice of Chinese medicine is regulated as a discrete health profession. There has been much national and international interest. The Victorian Minister for Health established the Chinese Medicine Registration Board of Victoria in December 2000 under authority of the Chinese Medicine Registration Act 2000. The CMR Board, slightly enlarged, continued after July 2007 under the Health Professions Registration Act 2005 (HPR Act) which repealed the earlier act. The HPR Act's purpose is to protect the public by minimising the health risks associated with this form of health care. The CMR Board is an incorporated body acting independently of government. It is financed solely through registration fees paid by registered practitioners. It does not have the roles of a professional association and like other health profession registration boards cannot act as a pressure group in the economic interests of the profession. The CMR Board's function is to apply the HPR Act and the law in protecting the public through regulation of the practice of Chinese medicine including acupuncture and the prescribing and dispensing of Chinese herbs. This is to be achieved via the process of registration of practitioners and investigation into the professional competence and fitness to practise of registered practitioners. This requires the CMR Board to ensure practitioners are suitably qualified and to investigate complaints (notifications) about them.
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The CMR Board has now been discharging these obligations for some years. It is useful to recall the criteria which were established through the consultation process and accepted by the government in the lead up to regulation. These were to:
The CMR Board has attempted to the best of its ability to address these criteria. There is still further work to be done. The CMR Board is grateful for the continuing support given to it by its staff, Chinese medicine practitioners, professional associations, consumer groups, state public servants, other registration boards and the many other individuals who have contributed to its work. There will, from 1 July 2010, be a national registration regime introduced for the professions currently regulated in all states and territories. Chinese medicine will be added to that national scheme on 1 July 2012. On that date the HPR act will be repealed and a national board will be established to regulate Chinese medicine throughout the whole of Australia. This will have advantages for registered practitioners when moving and working in the different states and territories. It will also allow a "one stop shop" approach for consumers of health services who have concerns about their treatment. The CMR Board has involved itself in the consultation process around national registration. It believes its experience in the start-up process of registration of the profession in Victoria will be of relevance to the national board when it commences to first register practitioners across the Commonwealth. David Halstead |
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