Mr Gair’s advice to chiropractors

Press, 14 July 1980, Page 4

Mr Gair’s advice to chiropractors

. The Minister of Health (Mr Gair) has told chiropractors that several factors

are leading them “towards participation in the mainstream of the health services.”

Mr Gair told the national; conference of the Chiropractors’ Association that the] petition to Parliament on be-1 half of chiropractors, the subsequent select committee’s most favourable recommendation, and the Commission of Inquiry report on chiropractic were all positive factors in favour of a change in the status of chiropractors in New Zealand.

“To force the game to an early end could set the result back some months, if not some years. To work with me in the search for common ground could well show significant progress between now and the end of next year,” Mr Gair said.

It would be wrong for anyone to assume that the Government was obliged to accept, and implement, all the recommendations contained in the commission’s report, he said.

I Any question of a chiroIpractic health benefit would have to be looked at in terms of the Government’s financial priorities. An attitude of mutual distrust had existed between ; chiropractors and the medical profession for many (years, Mr Gair said. A large j part of the responsibility for a change in attitudes rested with chiropractors, who would have to prove themselves to other health professionals. “As I see it, one of the greatest barriers in. the way of co-operation between the medical profession - and your own has been and continues to be, in New Zealand and elsewhere, a lack of clarity as to the limitations which chiropractors are prepared to place on their own field of practice and treatment,” Mr Gair said.

“It would not be an exaggeration to say that the future development of chiropractic within the health services will be influenced by the stand your association takes in this respect.”