News & Events
Tightened control over the activities of traditional practitioners in Russia
Traditional practitioners will have to prove the right to treat people. In the State Duma a draft law was developed which will be set rules for alternative medicine. Next week it will be submitted to parliament, "Rossiyskaya gazeta" reports.
Traditional practitioners will have to prove the right to treat people. In the State Duma a draft law was developed which will be set rules for alternative medicine. Next week it will be submitted to parliament, "Rossiyskaya gazeta" reports.
Sergey Kalashnikov, the law draftsman and the Chairman of the Duma Committee on Health, told “RG” that today a huge number of charlatans are involved in "traditional medicine", posing themselves as hereditary healers, professionals who are able to cure any illness. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization encourages states to give traditional medicine an opportunity to participate in treating of people on a par with evidence-based medicine.
"According to the Russian law on the basics of public health, documents entitling the rights to practice traditional healing are issued at the regional level; the law does not provide clear criteria that would determine whether a person may have the right to treat people," he said. So it turns out that any John, Tom or Harry can "help" Russians and everything would be fine if this would not be associated with threat to the life and health of their patients. It is proposed to improve the situation by amending this law. According to Kalashnikov, traditional practitioners can be divided into those who treat using methods of Chinese, Tibetan or Korean traditional medicine, and "traditional Russian medicine".
The difference is that in China, India or Korea one cannot practice traditional medicine unless a practitioner is trained in the specialized higher education institution, undertook an internship and has a special certificate.? "We reached an agreement with the Association of medical schools of traditional medicine in China (there are 19 such schools) and similar organizations in India and Korea that they will check the authenticity of diplomas and certificates referred to by healers in Russia in case they claim they are treat using traditional medicine methods of these countries," he said. He added that they will have to agree medicines they are going to use to treat patients, because in eastern countries preparations for traditional medicine are regulated.
As for Russian "herb doctors", "honey doctors" and so on, they will have to unite in self-regulatory organizations; if the professional community confirms the qualification of a practitioner and is ready to bear relevant responsibility, than he or she will have a chance to get authorization documents to carry out their activities. "Our country is large, so there may be several SROs," Kalashnikov added. "You and I, when communicating with the herbalist, will not be able to figure it out whether he tells us truth or whether his treatment method is good. But when twenty herbalists gather together, they will be able to reveal who really understands the subject, and who is a quack."
By the way, in Russia, according to the deputy, there are no schools that would train specialists in folk medicine.
