PROTECTION OF THE TITLE OF DOCTOR

That this House notes the title of doctor is not a protected title; further notes that practitioners of complementary medicine have an important role in health care, but believes that the title doctor implies a background in scientific orthodox medicine; further believes that the use of the term doctor by practitioners of complementary medicine is misleading and confusing; further believes that the array of other qualifications a trained orthodox doctor may hold can also be confusing; and calls on the Government either to protect the title of doctor for British Medical Association registered and suitably qualified practitioners, or to introduce a simple and popularly recognisable scheme that will distinguish between different traditions and levels of scientific evidence behind medicine.