Chiropractic Patients Association have no confidence in the GCC

What the CPA thinks of the GCC and what the GCC thinks of their opinion

by on Fri 08 Dec 2006 07:52 PM GMT

On Friday December 8th The Chiropractic Patients Association (CPA) had a meeting with the GCC. I made a freedom of information request for the GCC notes of the Meeting and was told they had none.

In my experience the GCC only takes minutes that the have complete control over how the information will be presented. The CPA was not being complementary to the GCC and so it was not something they would want to report to the CHRE. Margaret Coats took the minutes of all GCC meetings I ever attended and in general people were not happy with how she minuted those meetings. These are the CPA notes for the meeting.

The points raised by the CPA were;

  • That the GCC appears to be taking the attitude that a chiropractor is guilty and has to prove their innocence. “This is against natural justice”
  • The GCC is spending a disproportionate amount of money on prosecution in comparison with other regulatory bodies. In the same period Osteopaths spent £300,000 compared with the GCC’s £1,200,000. and there are more Osteopaths to regulate.

In addition to this point a freedom of information request to the Council for Health Care Regulatory Excelence (CHRE) Pointed out that between January 2004 and January 2007 they had received five complaints against the Ostepathic council, compared with eleven complaints against the GCC during the same period.

  • The GCC has on its council a significant number of lay people who have no experience of being a chiropractic patient.
  • The CPA said if asked the would have agreed with the sentiments expressed in the Bankside law survey that 77% of the chiropractic profession had no confidence in the GCC.

When I was on council I suggested getting the CPA involved in the initial complaints procedure for small chiropractic practices. Margaret Coats felt they would not be suitable because the CPA is too “pro chiropractic” to watch the interests of patients.

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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