Proposition 53K0194

Projet de loi portant confirmation de l'arrêté royal du 6 avril 2010 portant reconnaissance des organisations professionnelles de praticiens d'une pratique non conventionnelle ou d'une pratique susceptible d'être qualifiée de non conventionnelle reconnues.

General information ¶

Submitted by

CD&V Leterme Ⅱ

Submission date

Sept. 22, 2010

Official page

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Status

Adopted

Requirement

Simple

Subjects

medicine paramedical profession alternative medicine

Voting ¶

Voted to adopt

Groen CD&V Vooruit Ecolo LE PS | SP ∉ Open Vld N-VA LDD MR

Abstained from voting

VB

Contact form ¶

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Discussion ¶

Oct. 28, 2010 | Plenary session (Chamber of representatives)

Full source

I refer to the written report.

I would also like to thank the services for the diligence and quality with which they have worked.

(Brouhaha) by

I would like to ask you to respect the speaker. For those and those who would have to finish some discussions, there is space outside the hall.

We consider it important to put this issue back on the agenda, but we would have liked to do it in a different way. Ideally, the 1999 law, which aims to recognize these medicines, should have been revised more fundamentally. Here, we act in the emergency, even if it is necessary to allow these non-conventional medicine practitioners to exercise.

These medicines have developed enormously in recent years. They diversified and new formats were organized. Especially, they are seeing an increasing success among the public.

They are interesting because they offer patients a comprehensive approach to health. They also offer patients not the medication of any pain, of any pathology, but, on the contrary, a strengthening of resistance, a circulation of energies and therefore, the calming of pain, in contrast to a tendency to dependence on drugs.

Therefore, the recognition of these medicines, whether it is chiropractic, acupuncture, osteopathy, homeopathy, must absolutely become concrete.

It is also worth seeing them in complementarity and not in opposition to conventional medicine. It is important to frame them, give practitioners fully recognized training and give, especially to all patients, equal, equitable accessibility conditions. Actually, it is anything and it is the most favored audiences that have access to these treatments that improve well-being and that can also accompany allopathic treatments, treatments of chronic disease or serious diseases.

Obviously, we will vote in favour of this law that is submitted to us today by asking that, during this legislature, the Colla Act of 1999 be put back into practice to meet all the demands of the sector, in order not only to recognize de facto all these medicines, but possibly to expand the list and open us to new possibilities that require to be recognized, framed and made accessible to all.

Mr. Speaker, Mrs. Minister, dear colleagues, when I hear the noise that reigns in the auditorium, I wonder if the subject really interests a lot of people. And yet, it is important! It is imperative to see, 11 years after the publication of the law of 29 April 1999, called the Colla law, that its implementation is a sharp failure, if not total.

The Colla Act was intended to respond to the flagrant lack of regulation in Belgium, which means that anyone can indifferently practice one or another form of these unconventional treatments, without giving the public the slightest guarantee as to the standards of quality and training. 11 years later, what are the guarantees for patients? None of ! This law did not guarantee the safety of the patient against charlatans, but, fortunately, not all of them are.

In this case, we swim in a certain hypocrisy. Many people are already engaged in unconventional practices, have pins on the street and are not registered within the meaning of Article 8 of the Colla Act. Reimbursements by insurers are, where appropriate, offered as part of their complementary insurance, even though no training requirements have yet been established and no conditions for exercise have been imposed.

We understand the urgency of the bill that is submitted to us today, given the fact that the Belgian state is condemned to pay a fine of 5,000 euros per month of delay, and we adhere to it. That being said, be aware that we will be attentive to the future publication of the Federal Center for Health Care Expertise study which, logically, should appear at the end of this year. We believe that this Colla law will need to be re-founded and back on good bases in regards to regulation of unconventional practices, given the current context in this matter.

The Reformation Movement’s concern is guided by the patient’s interest. Their freedom of choice is essential. The patient is free to consult with the practitioner of his choice, and public authorities must ensure that this freedom and this right can be exercised in an optimal safety context.

The interest of the patient also requires the therapeutic freedom of physicians who must be able to integrate in their practice, if they consider it useful, conventional or unconventional treatments or techniques beneficial to the patient. They must also be able, under certain conditions, to delegate its application to practitioners they consider suitable to employ them.

I would like to welcome Mr. President’s first speech. and Thierry.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank Mrs. Snoy and d’Oppuers and Mr. Thierry for his speech.

I must specify that we are expecting two studies from the Kenniscentrum. The first, which focuses on homeopathy and osteopathy, is expected to reach us by the end of this year. The second is scheduled for March next year and concerns acupuncture and chiropractic.

The law must be revised. As you said, we need to put things straight. These studies will allow us to work in depth in the interests of patients. As soon as I have received the conclusions, I will of course forward them to Parliament so that we can start this important debate.