Government bails out Ofquack as it rewrites old press release

19th June, 2009 26

  Last March I asked, “Will the government bail out Ofquack?” when it was becoming very clear that the new government backed ‘regulator’ for pseudo-medical trades people (quacks) were running out of money  fast. It looks like at about the time I was asking this, the CNHC were running cap in hand to the Department of Health. In documents I have obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, it would [read more…]

Nutritional Therapists Fail to Join Ofquack

20th April, 2009 20

The Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council, Ofquack, is having an appalling start to its life. Needing 10,000 people to join its register in the first year to break even, it has collected less than 300 names. This should be put in context with a claimed “150,000 complementary healthcare practitioners in the UK.” Part of the problem is that, at the moment, Ofquack is only allowing nutritional therapists and massage therapists [read more…]

The Failure of Openness at Ofquack

6th April, 2009 12

I was going to call this post “The Failure of IT at Ofquack”, but I think the failure is a little deeper than computers. The Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council have recently put the following announcement up on their web site: Website Hackers We are extremely disappointed to have to share with you that we have had a number of unprecedented attempts by hackers to disable our website. We are [read more…]

Top Ten Tips For Creating Your Own New Alternative Medicine

29th March, 2009 29

The economic downturn may mean that you are thinking of retraining as an alternative healer. You might be tempted to invest your redundancy money or savings in training courses and equipment. Think again. It may be far cheaper and much more lucrative to invent your own brand new form of quackery. Most forms of alternative medicine are at most only a few decades old or have only become popular recently. [read more…]

Will the Government Bail Out Ofquack?

23rd March, 2009 17

It does not take a lot of analysis to realise that the newly formed Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council is going to be in a desperate financial state quite soon. The CNHC, or Ofquack to its friends, was launched this year after being set up by Prince Charles’ charity, the Foundation for Integrated Health, backed by funding of about £900,000 from the Department of Health. Ofquack is the “national voluntary [read more…]

Ofquack’s Toothless Squawk

19th January, 2009 1

Today sees the long awaited launch of the government backed Ofquack, better known in some circles as the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council (CNHC). Ofquack is the “national voluntary regulator for complementary healthcare practitioners” and was set up by Prince Charles’ Foundation for Integrated Health and funding from the Department of Health. You can find their sparkly new website at http://www.ofquack.org.uk/. It has been quite a long road getting here. [read more…]

Andy Burman Resigns From Ofquack

5th August, 2008 16

Andy Burman, Chief Executive of the British Dietetic Association, appears to have resigned his post from the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council (Ofquack). This news follows my recent criticism on this site of the BDA for not doing enough to educate the public about the difference between pseudoscientific Nutritional Therapists (as to be ‘regulated’ by Ofquack) and professionally trained and regulated dietitians (as currently represented by the BDA). This came [read more…]

The Empire of Homeopaths Strike Back

25th February, 2008 10

We know it is going to be a fun year for watching Homeopaths. The fight is well and truly on for who gets to pretend to regulate the profession. The beleaguered Society of Homeopaths have today gone on the offensive for total and unyielding control. The year started off with Prince Charles and the Foundation for Integrated Health announcing the arrival on the scene of the government backed Complementary and [read more…]

Netcetera are Recreant Milquetoasts and Poltroons. Positive Internet Stand Tall.

23rd February, 2008 19

So, the Quackometer has been up and running for 24 hours now and most systems have been restored. A bit more to go though. For the technically inclined, this has involved a move from cuddly cotton wool children’s Microsoft servers to grown up, open source, Apache/Unix servers where a missed semi-colon can kill faster than a homeopath dishing out malaria pills. It’s been a bit of a bother, but I [read more…]

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