National Institute of Medical Herbalists

There will be a House of Lords Reception to brief MPs on Statutory Regulation of herbal medicine, held on Thursday 12^th November 6.00pm - 8.00pm, Room 3 in the House of Lords.

Make sure YOUR MP attends this vital meeting - please e-mail him/her today and ask them to attend.

If you are unsure who your MP is go to the http://findyourmp.parliament.uk/ website and type your postcode into the search box and click on "Find MP".  Your MP's details will come up, including an e-mail address.

Introduce yourself to your MP and add a message similar to the following:

I am writing to advise you that come April 2011 it is likely that the people in your area will no longer be able to access herbal medicine as a patient choice. This is because medicines legislation in this country states that from April 2011 herbalists will have to be 'authorised health care professionals' ie. statutorily registered, in order to access a full range of herbal medicines.

Despite 10 years work the Department of Health is now suggesting that it will not statutorily register herbalists - hence come April 2011 we become, in law, simply members of the public, with no right of access to the tools of our trade.

This will effectively start to ban a profession which has provided services to the people of this country for thousands of years.

In order to inform MP's of these issues the National Institute of Medical Herbalists has, in conjunction with other herbal traditions, arranged a reception at Room 3 House of Lords, on Thursday 12th November, 6.00-8.00pm. Representatives of the growers, suppliers, manufacturers, practitioners, patients, student and others will be present to help raise attention to this threatening situation.

We realise that MP's are exceptionally busy people but our profession is making the effort to come to you. We would really appreciate it if you could make the time to drop in to the reception - even if only for 15 minutes. You will certainly be able to better inform yourself about this issue and thereby better represent the people of your constituency.