[Marxism] Socialist Alliance health policy amendment on CAM (Complementary and Alternative Medicine)

[Greg McDonald]

Nick,

Thank you for posting the article on CAM.  I would strongly support  
this resolution. BTW, was it adopted?

Greg


Resolution: Proposed health policy amendment
That the following sub-section be added to the Socialist Alliance  
Health Charter, before the sub-section on Patient’s
Rights:
“Complementary and alternative medicine
The Socialist Alliance recognises that complementary and alternative  
therapies, if properly regulated, can play an
important role in a democratically-run, community based health system  
that focuses on prevention and education.
The Socialist Alliance will: increase provision in public  
institutions of education and training in complementary and
alternative therapies that are supported by independent research and  
evaluation; ensure that healthcare practitioners who
advise or prescribe complementary or alternative medicines are  
appropriately trained and competent; extend Medicare
to cover the services of such practitioners; employ such  
practitioners as appropriate in public hospitals and Community
Health Centres; increase public research and evaluation of  
complementary and alternative medicines; regulate and
where appropriate nationalise the supply of complementary and  
alternative medicines to ensure they meet the required
standards of safety, quality and efficacy.”

i. NAC was the name used at the 2003 conference by a group of SA  
members, not belonging to any affiliate group, who
united behind a call for the Alliance to become a MTSP. But it is  
very unclear just who NAC is today because some of
those signatories do not support the “third way” course of the three  
national convenors, as Andrew Watson’s
contribution in Alliance Voices Vol. 5 No. 5 makes shows.
ii
  Bensoussan, A. Complementary medicine — where lies its appeal?  
Medical Journal of Australia. 1999; 170: 247-248.
The 2003 figure is from Bensoussan, A. et. al. A survey of the  
complementary medicine workforce. Complementary
Therapies in Medicine.  2004; 12(1): 17–27.
iii
  This point is stressed by Bensoussan, 1999.
iv
  Giggs, B. Green Pharmacy: The History and Evolution of Western  
Herbal Medicine. Vermont, Healing Arts Press,
1991.
v
  Brown ER. Rockerfeller Medicine Man: Medicine and Capitalism in  
America. Berkeley, University of California
Press 1979.
vi
  World Health Organisation. Traditional medicine. Fact Sheet No 134.  
2003. [Online]. Available:
www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs134/en/print.html
vii
  Ritenbaugh C, Verhoef M, Fleishman S, Boon H, Leis A Whole systems  
research: a discipline for studying
complementary and alternative medicine. Alternative Therapies in  
Health and Medicine. 2003. Jul-Aug; 9(4):32-6.
viii
  www.greens.org.au/policies/services/health