British Chiropractic Association asks the General Chiropractic Council to seek prescribing rights for its members

Picturbnne1 A ballot of BCA members has resulted in 78% of the votes cast (which was not that many), being in favour of asking the GCC to approach the Medicines Healthcare Regulatory Authority to set in motion a proposal to secure prescribing rights for chiropractors. This is a sad day for chiropractic, but at least the BCA has finally come out and nailed their colours to the mast. However as with the Simon Singh case they will push ahead showing disregard for the rest of the chiropractic profession in the UK and internationally. Since the early 90s the BCA has tried to reinvent itself three times and now there new vision is medipractors on the NHS

In October Richard Brown was appointed BCA president and to be fair to him he is the first BCA president in my time who has come out and declared openly the Councils intention to medicalise chiropractic. He stated “For the BCA to maintain credibility as a professional organisation it must examine itself closely and determine its future direction”

Richard Brown presented a paper to the membership  outlining the BCA councils intentions, (which are supported by the AECC and the Welsh Institute of chiropractic) to “bring about a cultural shift within the BCA” and be evidence based. Whether this means they were not being “evidenced based” when they produced the “happy families” leaflet is not clear.

I support anybody exposing unethical marketing practices, but quiet how alienating the vast majority of the worlds chiropractors with prescribing rights, fits into the BCA paradigm of chiropractic excellence is anyone’s guess, when the very people who do not have the skill to perform a chiropractic adjust will be the onesass prescribing and playing “doctors”.

cartoon If a patient needs NSAIDs, refer them to the experts in prescribing, medical doctors and let chiropractors be the experts in WOO as the sceptics call it. I can not see a day when medical professionals will be describing Richard Brown et al, as  NHS Consultants in Musculoskeletal Medicine?? Then again I never thought I would see the day chiropractors would give up on chiropractic and start  prescribing.

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Richard Lanigan
Richard Lanigan

Richard Lanigan DC.BSc (Chiro) MSc( Health Promotion) was born in North London 1957 of Irish Parents and was educated in Ireland. Originally trained as a PE teacher, he moved to Denmark 1979, where a serious knee injury got him interested in rehabilitation and training methods. Richard founded Denmarks premier fitness centre "Sweat Shop" in 1982 and travelled all over the world to find how best to prepare athletes for competition. In 1984 he became fitness and rehab consultant to the Danish national badminton teams, handball teams and many football club sides. This approach to optimal performance is normal in 2010, however back in the early 80s it was very revolutionary, when stretching was limited to putting on your socks and knee injuries were immobilised for months in plaster.
Richard developed rehabilitation and fitness programmes for many of Denmark’s top athletes including Kirsten Larsten and Ib Frederickson, all England singles badminton champions in late 80s. "Team Denmark" hired him and his facilities to help prepare many of Denmarks athletes for the LA and Seoul Olympics. In 1990 he worked with Anya Anderson, Olympic gold medallist and voted worlds best female handball player at the Atlanta Olympics.
Richard advised Copenhagen’s main teaching (Rigs) Hospital on starting their rehab facility in 1984. In the same year he started working with Denmarks leading chiropractor; Ole Wessung DC, who demonstrated the effectiveness of Chiropractic in improving athletic performance, so impressed was Richard that in 1990 he moved back to England to study chiropractic at Anglo European College of Chiropractic and was student president for two years between 1993-1995.

Richard was awarded a fellowship by the College of Chiropractors in 2008, however in January 2009 Richard chose to stop using the title chiropractor in the UK because the British regulatory body for chiropractic (The GCC) had not maintained international standards of chiropractic education in the UK and including prescribing medicines in the chiropractic scope of practice, a fig leaf for incompetent UK chiropractors to hide behind. Richard has another clinic in Dublin and is a member of the Chiropractic Association of Ireland and the European Chiropractic Union.
Richard has four children Eloise aged 3, Molly and Isabelle aged five and the eldest Frederik aged twenty one is pursuing a career as a professional tennis player and has represented Norway in the Davis Cup in 2006 & 2007. None of Richards children have ever taken any medicine, www.vaccination.co.uk they eat healthy food, take lots of exercise and have their spines checked every month, www.familychiropractic.co.uk
Richard has had much experience working in the Cuban health service where Doctors are keen to incorporate drug free interventions (acupuncture and chiropractic) and prevention in their health care programmes www.henryreevebrigade.org

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