Kiropraktikot kiipelissä

Oijoi. En olisi arvannut, että altistun tänään näin mahtavalle uutiselle.

Maanantaina bloggasin siitä kuinka brittiläinen kiropraktiikkaliitto on rutistanut Simon Singhin kovaan kouraan. Lopussa mainitsin melkein vain olan kohautuksella, että brittiläiset skeptikot ja tiedemiehet ovat tehneet systemaattisia valituksia valvovalle viranomaiselle kiropraktikoiden huuhaa-väittämistä.

Valitukset ovat alkaneet vaikuttamaan.

Eräs kiropraktikoiden liitto, McTimoney Chiropractic Association(klikkaa ja tarkasta ennen kuin luet lisää), on lähettänyt maanantaina kiireisen sähköpostin kaikille jäsenilleen. Luettuasi sen ymmärrät miksi järjestön (joka lyhennetään MCA) kotisivut ovat noin minimalistiset.

Subject: FURTHER URGENT ACTION REQUIRED!

Dear Member

If you are reading this, we assume you have also read the urgent email we sent you last Friday. If you did not read it, READ IT VERY CAREFULLY NOW and - this is most important – ACT ON IT. This is not scaremongering. We judge this to be a real threat to you and your practice.

Because of what we consider to be a witch hunt against chiropractors, we are now issuing the following advice:

The target of the campaigners is now any claims for treatment that cannot be substantiated with chiropractic research. The safest thing for everyone to do is as follows.

1. If you have a website, take it down NOW.

When you have done that, please let us know preferably by email or by phone. This will save our valuable time chasing you to see whether it has been done.

1. REMOVE all the blue MCA patient information leaflets, or any patient information leaflets of your own that state you treat whiplash, colic or other childhood problems in your clinic or at any other site where they might be displayed with your contact details on them. DO NOT USE them until further notice. The MCA are working on an interim replacement leaflet which will be sent to you shortly.

1. If you have not done so already, enter your name followed by the word ‘chiropractor’ into a search engine such as Google (e.g. Joe Bloggs chiropractor) and you will be able to ascertain what information about you is in the public domain e.g. where you might be listed using the Doctor title or where you might be linked with a website which might implicate you. We have found that even if you do not have a website yourself you may still have been linked inadvertently to a website listing you or your services.

CHECK ALL ENTRIES CAREFULLY AND IF IN DOUBT, CONTACT THE RELEVANT PROVIDER TO REMOVE YOUR INFORMATION.

CHECK OUR PREVIOUS EMAILS FOR SPECIFIC ADVICE AND KEY WORDS TO AVOID.

KEEP A LOG OF YOUR ACTIONS.

1. If you use business cards or other stationery using the ‘doctor’ title and it does not clearly state that you are a doctor of chiropractic or that you are not a registered medical practitioner, STOP USING THEM immediately.

5. Be wary of ‘mystery shopper’ phone calls and ‘drop ins’ to your practice, especially if they start asking about your care of children, or whiplash, or your evidence base for practice.

IF YOU DO NOT FOLLOW THIS ADVICE, YOU MAY BE AT RISK FROM PROSECUTION.

IF YOU DO NOT FOLLOW THIS ADVICE, THE MCA MAY NOT BE ABLE TO ASSIST YOU WITH ANY PROCEEDINGS.

Although this advice may seem extreme or alarmist, its purpose is to protect you. The campaigners have a target of making a complaint against every chiropractor in the UK who they perceive to be in breach of the GCC’s CoP, the Advertising Standards Code and/or Trading Standards. We have discovered that complaints against more than 500 individual chiropractors have been sent to the GCC in the last 24 hours.

Whatever you do, do not ignore this email and make yourself one of the victims. Some of our members have not followed our earlier advice and now have complaints made against them. We do not want that to happen to you.

Even if you do not have a website, you are still at risk. Our latest information suggests that this group are now going through Yellow Pages entries. Be in no doubt, their intention is to scrutinise every single chiropractor in the UK.

The MCA Executive has worked tirelessly over the last week keeping abreast of development and contacting at risk members. We have decided that this is our best course of action to protect you and the Association at this time of heightened tension. This advice is given to you solely to protect you from what we believe is a concerted campaign, and does not imply any wrongdoing on your part or the part of the Association. We believe that our best course of action is simply to withdraw from the battleground until this latest wave of targeting is over.

Finally, we strongly suggest you do NOT discuss this with others, especially patients, Firstly it would not be ethical to burden patients with this, though if they ask we hope you now have information with which you can respond.

Most importantly, this email and all correspondence from the MCA is confidential advice to MCA members alone, and should not be shared with anyone else.

Please be aware that the office phone lines are likely to be busy, so, if you need our help, please send an email to the office and we will get back to you as soon as we can.

Yours,

Berni Martin

MCA Chair.

Best wishes,

Nicki

Kerrassaan outoa. Miksi kiropraktikoiden täytyisi poistaa kaikki maininnat kiropraktiikan parantavasta voimasta? Skeptikot ovat vain pyytämässä, että kiropraktikot esittävät tukevaa todistusaineistoa väittämilleen. Sähköpostisssa sitä kutsutaan "noitavainoksi." Miksi liitto määrää vasta nyt, että kiropraktikot poistavat "tohtori" nimikkeet käyntikorteistaan jos niihin ei ole oikeutta?

Laitan vielä uudelleen hauskimman kohdan:

5. Be wary of ‘mystery shopper’ phone calls and ‘drop ins’ to your practice, especially if they start asking about your care of children, or whiplash, or your evidence base for practice.

Minä olen itse tehnyt tuollaista. Olen soittanut korvakynttilähoitoa myyvälle naiselle ja vieraillut homeopatiapuodissa ihan vain kyselemässä hoidoista ja niiden tehosta. Kiropraktikoiden pitää siis olla varovaisia sellaisten ihmisten äärellä, jotka tiedustelevat jotain hoidosta. Skeptikot ovat todella vaarallisia!


Kuvassa: skeptikko vierailee kiropraktikon luona

Vuorokauden aikana yli 500 kiropraktikkoa on joutunut valituksen kohteeksi. Valituksilla on todennäköisesti seuraamuksia, sillä aikaisemmin valvontaa hoitava Advertising Standards Agency on määrännyt kiropraktikoita siistimään mainoksiaan. Jos kiropraktikko on väittänyt, että kiropraktiikalla voi auttaa mm. koliikin, immuunijärjestelmän, migreenin, oppimisvaikeuksien tai ruuansulatushäiriöiden kanssa, niin ASA on napauttanut kiropraktikkoa sormille. Ei syyttä, sillä Britanniassa on asetettu selvät ohjeet sille mitä kiropraktikko saa mainostaa.

Chiropractic is a complementary medicine healthcare profession that focuses on diagnosis, treatment and prevention of mechanical disorders of the musculoskeletal system, with special emphasis on the spine. It emphasises manual therapy including spinal manipulation and other joint and soft-tissue manipulation, and includes exercises, and health and lifestyle counselling.

Like Osteopaths, Chiropractors are regulated by statute and may refer to serious medical conditions if they hold convincing evidence of the efficacy of their treatments. To date, the only serious medical condition to which CAP and the ASA accept chiropractors may refer is migraine (not headaches). But CAP has accepted in the past that chiropractors may claim to help: aches and pains, arthritic pain, backache, back pain, circulatory problems, cramp, digestion problems, joint pains, lumbago, muscle spasms, neuralgia, fibromyalgia, inability to relax, rheumatic pain, rheumatism, minor sports injuries and tension (see General List in the Help Note on Health, Beauty and Slimming Marketing Communications that Refers to Medical Conditions). Practitioners claiming to treat such conditions would be expected to hold evidence.

Some practitioners believe chiropractic helps the short-term treatment of acute low-back pain (not sciatica) and headaches. To date, we have not seen evidence that the therapy can help but the evidence we have seen so far on its efficacy is scant and our position could change.

Chiropractors should not mislead on their status or training. Only chiropractic practitioners registered with the General Chiropractic Council (GCC) may call themselves Chiropractors. Other therapists wanting to claim to offer chiropractic techniques must hold suitable, relevant qualifications to undertake such therapy and robust substantiation for the efficacy of claims for that therapy.

Nyt kiropraktikoiden täytyy kaivaa jostain esiin tieteellistä näyttöä. On sääli että vapaa-aikanaan hääräävät nettisurffailijat joutuvat hoitamaan valvontaa hoitavan järjestön hommat.

Britannian kiropraktiikkaliitto sai tarjouksen Guardian-lehdeltä ennen oikeuteen menoa. Guardian olisi painanut 500-sanaisen vastineen BCA:lta. Näin olisi voitu oikoa se lukijoille annettu väärinkäsitys, että kiropraktikoille ei olisi tieteellistä evidenssiä. BCA kieltäytyi tarjouksesta. Sinällään outo päätös, sillä BCA oli valittanut Singhin vahingoittaneen heidän mainetta Guardianin sivuilla. Juuri lehden lukijat olivat altistuneet tälle "loukkaukselle."