Healers can start to obtain licenses to practice traditional medicine, just like traditional doctors. Such provisions are being developed in the Coordination Council for the Regulation of Traditional Medicine under the Ministry of Health. Deputy Chairman of the Council Vladimir Egorov told RT that the relevant amendments to the law will be considered by the end of the year. In addition, a register of permitted folk methods will be created. They plan to admit healers to practice only after an internship under the guidance of a doctor.
Healers for the Ministry of Health
The issue of issuing licenses to traditional healers is now being discussed in the Coordination Council for the Regulation of Traditional Medicine under the Ministry of Health. According to the deputy chairman of the Council, Vladimir Yegorov, they plan to start issuing permits for practice as early as next year, after the healers undergo training with traditional doctors and pass exams.
“Herbalists will be taught by doctors who specialize in herbal medicine (herbal medicine. - RT). Who will evaluate the chiropractors? The doctor is a chiropractor (heals with massage. - RT). They, like doctors, can appreciate similar manipulations. Such internships will be paid and will take place in private medical centers. The doctor will be responsible for the internship before the patients and before the state,”explains Yegorov.
The healer will have to take the received internship document to the regional Ministry of Health. To him, according to Egorov, you will need to attach a document confirming the legality of labor activity: a certificate of registration of an individual entrepreneur or an employment contract.
Medical education for traditional healers will still not be compulsory: Vladimir Egorov noted that an internship and an exam for practical skills should be enough.
“We need to test real security knowledge and practical skills, and not be guided by pieces of paper that can be forged,” explains Egorov.
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A list of all official healers can be posted on the websites of Roszdravnadzor and regional ministries of health.
Now, according to the law, permits for practicing traditional medicine are issued by the regional Ministry of Health at the request of an interested person and a request from a medical NGO. Nevertheless, according to Yegorov, only a quarter of the regions are engaged in the issuance of such permits, while the rest refuse, "motivating this by the fact that they are afraid to take responsibility."
New traditional
Some of the methods of folk healing are intended to be equated with traditional ones. According to Egorov, the Council plans to propose to rename Art. 50 of the Law "On the Basics of Health Protection of Citizens" "Traditional Medicine" into "Traditional Medicine". Egorov claims that the updated article will contain a register of methods that emerged from traditional medicine that can be used in ordinary medical practice. These include, for example, herbal medicine (herbal medicine), hirudotherapy (leech therapy), manual therapy (massage), and apitherapy (bee venom treatment).
As Egorov notes, this will be done solely for safety reasons - patients and those who issue permits to practice traditional medicine should know whether the method is allowed or not.
“A doctor who has a higher medical education, but wants to supplement his practice with medical leeches, should apply to the regional Ministry of Health as a folk healer! This is no good. We want both branches - traditional and folk medicine - to be included in one article, so that a clear list of all permissible practices is drawn up and that everything is streamlined,”notes Egorov.
Now the Council is faced with the question of whether it is worth introducing a block of questions on naturopathy (treatment with folk methods) into compulsory medical accreditation. This can be tentatively done in 2021.
“Today, admission to medical practice is not based on methods, but on specialties: in cardiology, in surgery. When doctors are admitted to work, they can add different methods. For example, the use of herbal medicine in therapeutic practice, the use of hirudotherapy in gynecology. For each such direction there will be an admission, which will be applied to the accreditation of a doctor,”explains Egorov.
How many leeches to put
The introduction of the register of traditional healers is supported by Svetlana Tsarevskaya, President of the International Professional Association of Complementary, Alternative, Traditional Medicine and Psychologists. The expert cites Kazakhstan as an example, where the state issues licenses to engage in such activities.
“All healers in Kazakhstan are registered with the city administration and in the capital. Be sure to work with them, meetings, they confirm their knowledge. We do not have this yet, but let's hope that something similar will be done,”she notes.
For folk healers, adds Tsarevskaya, it is required to develop standards of the profession, where it is necessary to prescribe the education necessary for the healer.
“For massage therapists and naturopaths, medical education is necessary to know, for example, where and how much to put leeches. After all, sick people have weakened health, so you need to know the medical basics. At least courses for healers and those who work at a distance or on the phone with energy,”says Tsarevskaya.
Followers of the pasta monster
The initiative was questioned by the president of the Society of Evidence-Based Medicine Specialists, Doctor of Medical Sciences Vasily Vlasov.
“All public organizations that unite followers of the 'macaroni monster', healers, hand-layers, they, of course, can develop standards for correct hands-on. But this definitely should not apply to the field of professional training of doctors and their accreditation. This should be an internal affair of organizations uniting healers, and not attract the attention of the medical community,”Vlasov said.
President of the League of Patients' Rights Defenders Alexander Saversky, in turn, believes that renaming traditional medicine into traditional will only lead to speculation, since people can simply get confused in the names.
“Any attempts to regulate in this area are impossible. The division into traditional and non-traditional is very difficult, everyone is lost. Mimicking one thing for another is very beneficial. Let's rename it to traditional, and you will get a market of people who will think that this is official medicine. The big question is what can be called medicine at all. If you talk to doctors, they will say that folk medicine is not medicine at all, since there is no evidence of its effectiveness, Saversky notes.
Speculation can also begin within the newest legal framework, the expert concludes.