McTimoney Chiropractic Association cut and run

Thanks to Andy Lewis and Richard Lanigan* I have come across this email from the McTimoney Chiropractic Association (MCA), one of the bodies representing chiropractors.

Date: 8 June 2009 09:12:18 BDT

Subject: FURTHER URGENT ACTION REQUIRED!

Dear Member

If you are reading this, we assume you have also read the urgent email we sent you last Friday.  If you did not read it, READ IT VERY CAREFULLY NOW and  – this is most important – ACT ON IT.  This is not scaremongering.  We judge this to be a real threat to you and your practice.

Because of what we consider to be a witch hunt against chiropractors, we are now issuing the following advice:

The target of the campaigners is now any claims for treatment that cannot be substantiated with chiropractic research.  The safest thing for everyone to do is as follows.

1. If you have a website, take it down NOW.

When you have done that, please let us know preferably by email or by phone. This will save our valuable time chasing you to see whether it has been done.

1. REMOVE all the blue MCA patient information leaflets, or any patient information leaflets of your own that state you treat whiplash, colic or other childhood problems in your clinic or at any other site where they might be displayed with your contact details on them.  DO NOT USE them until further notice. The MCA are working on an interim replacement leaflet which will be sent to you shortly.

1. If you have not done so already, enter your name followed by the word ‘chiropractor’ into a search engine such as Google (e.g. Joe Bloggs chiropractor) and you will be able to ascertain what information about you is in the public domain e.g. where you might be listed using the Doctor title or where you might be linked with a website which might implicate you. We have found that even if you do not have a website yourself you may still have been linked inadvertently to a website listing you or your services.

CHECK ALL ENTRIES CAREFULLY AND IF IN DOUBT, CONTACT THE RELEVANT PROVIDER TO REMOVE YOUR INFORMATION.

CHECK OUR PREVIOUS EMAILS FOR SPECIFIC ADVICE AND KEY WORDS TO AVOID.

KEEP A LOG OF YOUR ACTIONS.

1. If you use business cards or other stationery using the ‘doctor’ title and it does not clearly state that you are a doctor of chiropractic or that you are not a registered medical practitioner, STOP USING THEM immediately.

5.   Be wary of ‘mystery shopper’ phone calls and ‘drop ins’ to your practice, especially if they start asking about your care of children, or whiplash, or your evidence base for practice.

IF YOU DO NOT FOLLOW THIS ADVICE, YOU MAY BE AT RISK FROM PROSECUTION.

IF YOU DO NOT FOLLOW THIS ADVICE, THE MCA MAY NOT BE ABLE TO ASSIST YOU WITH ANY PROCEEDINGS.

Although this advice may seem extreme or alarmist, its purpose is to protect you.  The campaigners have a target of making a complaint against every chiropractor in the UK who they perceive to be in breach of the GCC’s CoP, the Advertising Standards Code and/or Trading Standards.  We have discovered that complaints against more than 500 individual chiropractors have been sent to the GCC in the last 24 hours.

Whatever you do, do not ignore this email and make yourself one of the victims. Some of our members have not followed our earlier advice and now have complaints made against them.  We do not want that to happen to you.

Even if you do not have a website, you are still at risk. Our latest information suggests that this group are now going through Yellow Pages entries. Be in no doubt, their intention is to scrutinise every single chiropractor in the UK.

The MCA Executive has worked tirelessly over the last week keeping abreast of development and contacting at risk members.  We have decided that this is our best course of action to protect you and the Association at this time of heightened tension.  This advice is given to you solely to protect you from what we believe is a concerted campaign, and does not imply any wrongdoing on your part or the part of the Association.  We believe that our best course of action is simply to withdraw from the battleground until this latest wave of targeting is over.

Finally, we strongly suggest you do NOT discuss this with others, especially patients, Firstly it would not be ethical to burden patients with this, though if they ask we hope you now have information with which you can respond.

Most importantly, this email and all correspondence from the MCA is confidential advice to MCA members alone, and should not be shared with anyone else.

Please be aware that the office phone lines are likely to be busy, so, if you need our help, please send an email to the office and we will get back to you as soon as we can.

Yours,

Berni Martin

MCA Chair.

Best wishes,

Nicki

Nicki Choules-Rowe

Administrative Officer – Executive Liaison

McTimoney Chiropractic Association

Crowmarsh Gifford

Wallingford OX10 8DJ

Tel : 01491 829494

It looks like the McTimoney school were aware that their members were promoting treatments unsubstantiated by research and promoting themselves as doctors as they admit that “Some of our members have not followed our earlier advice and now have complaints made against them”.  I also looks like they have contempt for fully informing their patients/customers about the furore over the evidence base for their claims, “we strongly suggest you do NOT discuss this with others, especially patients”.

This is astonishing.  This is an organisation representing chiropractors assisting them in hiding their dodgy business practices from prying eyes.  It looks like the culture of secrecy and fear of open debate that drove the British Chiropractic Association (BCA) to silence Simon Singh in the libel courts is widespread amongst the chiropractic community.  It also points to a schism developing amongst the chiropractic community, the MCA have decided to “withdraw from the battleground until this latest wave of targeting is over” – so much for supporting their fellow chiropractors.

It will be fascinating to see how this develops.

*Richard Lanigan has interesting opinions and an axe to grind regarding the GCC so caution is required when reading but his site is a useful resource.