OSTEOPATHS IN THE HEALTHCARE TEAM

With the opening of the first Statutory Register in 1998, osteopathy in the UK moved into a new phase. After May 2000, anyone wanting to call themselves an osteopath must be registered with the General Osteopathic Council (GOsC) and answerable to it for their standards of fitness to practise osteopathy. Andrew Gilmour is Council member of the GOsC and Chairman of its Research Advisory Forum.

Registration is much more than a bureaucratic process. It is the expression of a standard, a visible sign that a profession and the public have entered into a contract for mutual advantage. Patients rely on osteopaths, and put their trust in them. In return, osteopaths agree to maintain a high standard of care, competence and conduct.

The GOsC exists to protect patients by promoting excellence in osteopathic care. It does this by:

? Maintaining the register
? Promoting high standards of osteopathic education
? Guiding osteopaths in standards of professional practice
? Dealing with osteopaths whose fitness to practise is questioned
? Promoting and developing the practice of osteopathy

One of the first things the GOsC did was to publish Pursuing Excellence (available by emailing andrewg@gilmourpiper.co.uk) a code of practice stating clearly and simply the standards it expects of any osteopath on the register. Against that and an explicit Standard Of Proficiency (available by emailing andrewg@gilmourpiper.co.uk) the Council is assessing individually – through a detailed personal and professional portfolio – everyone who applies for registration as an osteopath. The Council has stayed with an early instinct that public protection demands much more than a blanket award of ‘grandfather rights’.

The GOsC is now inspecting the schools that train osteopaths. Those teaching to the appropriate standard will have their qualifications recognised – as medical, nursing and other qualifications are already – as the route to registration in the future.

The whole process has been painstaking and systematic, uncomfortable for some but accepted by most as a sound way to ensure the register of osteopaths stands on a firm footing and provides effective public protection.