The Voluntary Register of Complementary Practitioners

The Voluntary Register of Complementary Practitioners is important for anyone requiring information about registered practitioners and practitioner organizations.

The aim of the register scheme is to help ensure patient safety and consumer rights for anyone seeking a registered complementary practitioner. The scheme also aims to contribute to a serious way of conducting business among complementary practitioners. The registration scheme is voluntary.

Only practitioners who are members of an approved practitioner organization can be registered in the register.

The Directorate for Health and Social Affairs is responsible for approving practitioner organizations that may participate in the registration scheme. A number of requirements must be satisfied if the practitioner organization is to be approved. This includes having articles of association stating that the practitioner must undertake to operate his or her business responsibly, provide patients with the necessary information and deal with health and personal information responsibly. The practitioner organization's articles of association must also provide patients with the right to lodge complaints against the professional conduct of members. This scheme gives patients more security when choosing a practitioner. If a practitioner is registered, this means that the practitioner's professional training satisfies requirements stipulated by the practitioner organization in question.

There is no requirement that a practitioner must register to undertake complementary practice. The Act relating to complementary treatment of illness applies to everyone, regardless of whether the practitioner is registered or not. As the scheme is voluntary, this means that the public authorities do not vouch for individual practitioners and the treatment offered even if the practitioner is registered in the Voluntary Register of Complementary Practitioners.

Only those who are registered as a practitioner of complementary practice in the register are entitled to use the designation "registered" in their professional title as a complementary practitioner.

A registration fee must be paid for the initial registration, and thereafter an annual fee must be paid to maintain the registration. Non-payment of the registration fee will lead to deletion from the register.