Alternative Health
Pursuant to section 11 of the New Zealand Public Health and Disability Act 2000:
(a) I establish a committee called the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Complementary and Alternative Health.
(b) I appoint the following person to be chairperson of the committee:
Professor Peggy Koopman-Boyden.
(c) I appoint the following 7 persons to be members of the committee:
Melva Martin.
David Holden.
James Joseph McNeill.
Dr Deborah Suitafa Ryan.
Janine Marion Randle.
Dr Rhys Griffith Jones.
Marilyn Wright.
(d) I specify the following functions for the committee in respect of advising me on issues related to complementary and alternative healthcare products, therapies and practitioners:
(i) To provide information and advice to the Minister of Health on complementary and alternative healthcare;
(ii) To provide advice on how complementary and alternative healthcare can improve outcomes in the priority areas signalled in the New Zealand Health Strategy;
(iii) To provide advice on the need, or otherwise,
to regulate complementary and alternative practitioners in order to protect consumers who use complementary and alternative healthcare;
(iv) To provide advice on consumer information needs and, in particular, advice on the benefits, risks and costs of complementary and alternative therapies;
(v) To review overseas evidence-based research, identify priorities for the development of
New Zealand evidence-based research on the safety and efficacy of specific natural therapies and support the development of guidelines; and
(vi) To provide advice on whether, and how, specified natural health practitioners should be integrated into the mainstream health system.
(e) I specify that the committee will provide me with an annual report based on the work programme agreed between the committee and the Minister of Health each year.
Dated this 31st day of May 2001.
ANNETTE KING, Minister of Health.