Reminder of Guidelines for safe Chinese herbal medicine practice

21 Nov 2016

The Chinese Medicine Board of Australia (the Board) reminds Chinese medicine practitioners there is only one year until the Guidelines for safe Chinese herbal medicine practice come into effect.

The guidelines, which were published in November 2015, explain the Chinese Medicine Board’s expectations of Chinese medicine practitioners to provide safe Chinese herbal medicine services. They address a policy gap by providing clear guidance for practitioners to make sure there is clarity and transparency about the expectations of practitioners providing Chinese herbal medicine services.

The guidelines come into formal effect on 12 November 2017.

Board Chair Professor Charlie Xue said: ‘The guidelines assist Chinese medicine practitioners to practise Chinese herbal medicine safely and support the Board’s effort to facilitate public access to safe health services.’

‘We expect Chinese medicine practitioners to take all the necessary steps to comply with the guidelines. Chinese medicine practitioners who do not comply risk facing regulatory action.’

The Board has released resources to help Chinese medicine practitioners with the implementation of the guidelines, including:

• Quick Reference Guide
• FAQ
• User guide - Nomenclature compendium for Chinese herbal medicine (705 KB,PDF), Word version (1.15 MB,DOCX)
• Nomenclature list of commonly used Chinese herbal medicines (132 KB,XLSX) Any alterations made to this compendium after downloading will invalidate it.

Chinese medicine practitioners should also visit the Guidelines for safe practice of Chinese herbal medicine page for further information.

Background

The guidelines apply to all practising registered Chinese medicine practitioners¹ Chinese medicine students who perform supervised clinical treatment, and dispensary assistants who are supervised by registered practitioners, should also be familiar with these guidelines.

¹This refers to any person registered in any of the divisions of acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, or Chinese herbal dispensing by the Chinese Medicine Board of Australia; the term Chinese medicine practitioner includes Chinese herbal medicine practitioners, acupuncturists and dispensers.