 Fantastic news everyone! You now have the option to ask your GP for a referral to see me and other nutritional and complementary health practitioners in the UK. Doctors’ referrals guidelines have been amended and they can now refer patients requesting nutritional therapy to Registered Nutritional Therapists, such as myself. This is ground-breaking news involving all Registered Nutritional Therapists in the UK! It is a significant and exciting step towards improving the quality of our health care system, providing greater patient choice and improving the health of our nation. Following the announcement in March by the Professional Standards Authority that traditional health professionals should look beyond the confines of the health and care system to engage with Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council (CNHC) registered practitioners, like Nutritional Therapists, there has been another significant boost for our profession. The General Medical Council (GMC) has amended referrals guidance to doctors such that they can now refer patients wanting complementary therapies to CNHC registered practitioners including Nutritional Therapists.* The full wording of the GMC guidance is available here at section 8: GMC Delegation and Referral Guidance. Work continues on raising awareness of the benefits of nutritional therapy, promoting the work we do as evidenced based, supported by the most up-to-date nutrition studies. Nutritional therapy is an effective and science-led approach to many disease states, particularly those triggered by poor lifestyle choices (e.g. heart disease and type 2 diabetes) as well as preventative health (e.g. joint and bone health, to name a few). Find out more about what nutritional therapy supports here. Our strained healthcare system is hopefully becoming more and more receptive to this fact, acknowledging Registered Nutritional Therapists and other complementary healthcare practitioners as competent and professional health providers who are willing to work together to best support the needs of clients. Miguel Toribio-Mateas, Chairman of the British Association for Applied Nutrition & Nutritional Therapy (BANT) commented: “Following the recent Professional Standards Authority report, the GMC announcement is more excellent news for Registered Nutritional Therapists and should bring greater recognition of the role that our profession can play in providing holistic health care. CNHC registration gives reassurance to the public and other healthcare practitioners that our members are professional and knowledgeable and we welcome the GMC’s acknowledgement of this." There is now no reason why doctors cannot refer patients to Registered Nutritional Therapists, when appropriate. This is a significant step in the right direction for our health care system, providing you with far greater patient choice than ever before. Although, this does not mean that NHS funding will automatically follow, some private health insurance providers (e.g. Pru Health) already cover Nutritional Therapy. Do please check with your provider. It is currently up to each GP surgery to decide where funding is allocated. Communication between BANT, GPs and the medical community continues and I for one am highly optimistic about the future. This really is a fantastic improvement in patient choice. Please help spread the word! If you share my excitement for GP referrals for Nutritional Therapy please comment below. For more information about Nutritional Therapy and how you can benefit visit here>> Alternatively, find out more about me, Mary Cotter and where my health journey has taken me>> Or discover how fun, sexy and vibrant nutritious food REALLY is in the Stellar Health Kitchen. There are loads of delicious, healthy recipes to choose from. Healthy eating is about variation, not deprivation. 
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