Montreal, November 24, 1997 – On November 9, 1993, the Big Law came to sanction the end of the medical monopoly in the Netherlands. It came into effect in the fall of 1997, 30 years after the creation of the national commission of inquiry at its origin.
The history of the Dutch law relating to the professions of individual public health (Big Law) begins in 1967 with the creation of a commission of inquiry to give its opinion on the exercise of the medical professions. This commission submitted a report in 1973. In 1981, the Dutch government submitted a draft of the Big Law to parliament, but it was not until 1993 that this law was adopted and its entry into force expected at the end of 1997. .
This law, although very imperfect from the point of view of alternative therapists, nevertheless gives a status to the 24,000 therapists without university training found in the Netherlands.
The Big Law recognizes three categories of medical practitioners: trades regulated by the law itself (physicians, dentists, pharmacists, midwives, clinical psychologists, psychotherapists), trades regulated by executive orders of the Big Law ( dieticians, occupational therapists, speech therapists, dental hygienists, etc.) and the professions of all other health professionals, including alternative therapists.
The first two categories are recognized and protected trades for which the training standards are set by law or its implementing decrees. The alternative category does not include any recognized or protected profession, training requirements are free and each organization can create its own standards of practice. These non-medical practitioners are therefore authorized to exercise their profession without the risk of being prosecuted, but they do not benefit from any specific status.
According to Me Alexander de Savornin Lohman, lawyer in Utrecht, it seems that “the public authorities hope that alternative public health will put some order in its ranks and will try to self-regulate. But it is ultimately the organizations in the parallel sector that must do everything and finance everything themselves. In the long run, this may result in certain treatments being reimbursed by Medicare, but things are far from clear. ”
HealthPassport.net
According to Esculape, the international journal of unconventional medicine.