Directory

Directory of Access to Complementary and Alternative Medicine in the Bedford area.

Downloading the CAM Directory
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Background Information
Please note, the CAM Directory was published in September 2002.
Interest in the provision of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) becoming available on the NHS has increased dramatically in recent years. In 1993 the British Medical Association (BMA) overturned its previous ruling and suggested that complementary medicine now had a role to play in primary health care , and recent research identified that over 58% of Primary Care Groups (PCGs) offered some form of provision for CAM.

However, despite this recent increased uptake, there is still much confusion over the regulation and efficacy of CAM. Therefore this directory aims to:

  • Highlight those CAM therapies that are regulated and have a proven scientific background.
  • Implement one of the recommendations suggested in the report by the Department of Health, that “individual PCGs might consider compiling a local directory of therapists with recognised qualificationsâ€? – thus encouraging local uptake of CAM provision on the NHS.

This directory acknowledges the recent report by the House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology (2000) on CAM , and has grouped the therapies in this directory according to the structure outlined in the report:

Group 1 Therapies
Those therapies the committee thought were ‘professionally organised disciplines with their own diagnostic approach. They have some scientific evidence of effectiveness and recognised systems of training for practitioners’.

Group 2 Therapies
Those therapies the committee thought ‘lacked a firm scientific basis and are not regulated to protect the public, but which give help and comfort to many people’.

Group 3 Therapies
The alternative disciplines the committee thought ‘offered diagnostic information, as well as treatment, but for which the Committee did not find convincing evidence of efficacy’. This group was sub-divided into those therapies with long established and traditional disciplines with very specific philosophies, and all other therapies.

The complementary therapies available in Bedford are listed alphabetically under each of the above groups, on a page per therapy format, and the following information is given for each therapy:

  • Definition
  • A list of regulating associations/governing bodies (with their corresponding register) of local CAM practitioners in private practice.
  • Local NHS provision via GP referral

Note: Group 1 therapies hold additional information on training and usage.