The Royal College of Chiropractors Health Policy Unit (HPU)

Chair – Dr Mark Gurden FRCC

In the last two decades the chiropractic profession has come a long way towards establishing itself in the UK health care system through the publication of good evidence. This helped with the passage of the Chiropractors Act and setting up of the General Chiropractic Council. Some involvement with the NHS took place, which enhanced the status that had been achieved, leading to a greater understanding of chiropractic among other healthcare professions.

It is important that this position is developed and the College’s Health Policy Unit (HPU) is responsible for this task. The HPU’s Terms of Reference are as follows:

  • To develop and define the RCC’s position on key aspects of chiropractic practice, in liaison with the RCC Council, and act as the contact point for the RCC when its views are sought;
  • To seek to establish a culture of clinical governance to assure the quality of care provided by chiropractors is constantly improving;
  • To work to ensure chiropractic is recognised as a profession that has broad skills and competencies and provides a package of care not limited to manual therapy;
  • To foster the widespread collection and utilisation of outcome data relating to clinical effectiveness, cost effectiveness and patient experience and to promote Evidence Based Practice in liaison with the Research Unit;
  • To develop care pathways, protocols and service specifications and to position chiropractic appropriately within multidisciplinary care pathways;
  • To investigate and foster the integration of chiropractic and commissioning of chiropractic services into mainstream healthcare, thus increasing access and reducing long-term healthcare costs;
  • To seek to collaborate with other disciplines to identify best practice, to foster patient choice and to help eliminate health inequalities in the MSK field;
  • To establish links with key organisations, such as the DH and relevant NHS groups, and to ensure the chiropractic profession is represented as a stakeholder in terms of health policy decision making;
  • To produce the RCC’s responses to relevant consultations in liaison with and on behalf of the Council.