College of Medicine (UK)
The College of Medicine (CoM) is a United Kingdom based organisation founded in 2010 for patients and healthcare professionals. It describes its mission as follows:
"We advocate for a new attitude to healthcare: one which forges partnerships across society, emphasises prevention, good food, exercise, and attention to the emotional as well as the physical. We think everyone should be part of the conversation about health, not just a select professional elite. We believe that only by an approach to health which stretches well beyond the GP surgery will we tackle the chronic illnesses like diabetes, obesity and depression which are increasingly common in our society.[1]
Its events cover subjects such as social prescribing, the use of diet in managing conditions from diabetes to cancer, and student education.[2]
It originated from the collapse of the Prince of Wales' controversial Foundation for Integrated Health, which was criticised for promoting integrated medicine and alternative medicine.[3] The College states that it aims to "promote a more politically and professionally transparent, patient centred, and sustainable approach to healthcare, using whatever social or therapeutic approaches are safe, effective, and empowering for patients".[4]
It argues that a greater focus on compassionate caring is necessary because of the frequency of National Health Service scandals about care, such as the Stafford Hospital scandal.[3]
Contents
Officers and Directors
Its officers and associates include former senior NHS staff. Its first President was Graeme Catto, former President of the General Medical Council, and its officers and advisory council include Nigel Crisp former Chief Executive of the NHS, Muir Gray Chief knowledge officer to the NHS.[3]
Its Directors are Michael Dixon, Christine Glover, former head of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and Professor David Peters, a Clinical Director at the University of Westminster's School of Life Sciences.[5]
Membership
Membership is open to any registered healthcare or social care professional.[6] It is possible for some students/trainees to join as members, so long as the student or trainee is studying for a degree-level qualification that will lead to professional registration within one of the following health and social care fields;
Medicine, Nursing/Midwifery, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Psychology, Social Work, Allied Health Professions (including Arts therapies, Chiropody or Podiatry, Dietetics, Operating department practice, Orthoptics, Occupational therapy, Physiotherapy, Prosthetics and orthotics, Radiography, Speech and language therapy), A statutory regulated Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) discipline (Chiropractic and Osteopathy) or a voluntary regulated CAM discipline recognised by the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council.
Links to the Prince's Foundation for Integrated Health
One director of the College, Michael Dixon, is a former director of the Foundation for Integrated Health. A former director of the College, George Lewith, was a council member of the foundation[7] and his research unit at the University of Southampton played an important role in the development of the foundation.[8]
Criticism
The Foundation for Integrated Health promoted integrative medicine." At launch, several commentators writing in the Guardian and the British Medical Journal, expressed the opinion that the new organisation is simply a re-branding of the Prince's Foundation,[9][10][11][12][13][14] describing it as "Hamlet without the Prince".[3]
In support of this connection with Prince Charles, alternative medicine critic and pharmacologist David Colquhoun has argued that the College (originally called "The College of Integrated Health") is extremely well-funded[15] and seemed from the beginning to be very confident of the Prince's support, explicitly describing its mission as "to take forward the vision of HRH the Prince of Wales" in an early presentation.[16]
These claims have been contested by the College.[4]
See also
References
- ↑ http://www.collegeofmedicine.org.uk/"
- ↑ http://www.collegeofmedicine.org.uk/college-of-medicine-students/
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