Osteopathy is an established system of diagnosis and manual treatment, which is recognised by the British Medical Association as a discrete clinical discipline.
For the last sixty years, osteopaths have worked within a system of voluntary regulation that set standards of training and practice. In 1993, osteopathy became the first major complementary health care profession to be accorded statutory recognition under the 1993 Osteopaths Act. This has culminated in the opening of the statutory register of osteopaths by the General Osteopathic Council in May 1998.
Only those practitioners able to show that they have been in safe and competent practice of osteopathy will be allowed onto the register and in the future all osteopaths will be trained to the same high rigorous standards.
All osteopaths will need to have medical malpractice insurance and to follow a strict code of conduct.
Patients will have the same safeguards as when currently they consult a doctor or dentist.