According to a report in CBC News by chiropractic critic Bethany Lindsay 50 chiropractors ". . . have refused to remove misleading claims from their websites and Facebook pages and are now under investigation" by the regulatory board.
There is no mention of who these 50 chiropractors are, nor how Lindsay knows about their refusal, though it appears from her previous reporting that the Board may be leaking confidential information to her in order to further their mutual agenda.
There was no mention whether or not any of the 50 chiropractors now being investigated include members of the regulatory board itself.
Readers may recall that we conducted a thorough investigation of the Regulatory Board Members' websites applying their own Policy and found rampant violations including the then Chair of the Board David Olsen DC. Olsen has since been replaced as Chair by Johnny Suchdev DC who claims to have “The leading clinic in Vancouver" among many other violations of the Board's Policy.
Time will tell whether or not the Board members take their own medicine or leave their websites as is providing clear evidence that this is really just a witch hunt meant to restrain trade by active market players.
According to Lindsey the Board is so determined to go after chiropractors that practice in a salutogenic model that they used "an electronic scanning program to identify about 250 possible violations of college policy."
Richard Simpson, the Interim Registrar of the Board stated:
"I am concerned that the pace at which we reach full compliance by B.C. chiropractors with the policy is not meeting the expectations of the public, the college and the vast majority of our registrants."
Lindsay, in her zeal to attack chiropractors continues to get her facts incorrect stating in her story:
"Last month, the college gave all chiropractors in this province a deadline of Nov. 1 to comply with an efficacy claims policy that forbids them from claiming to treat a wide range of conditions that are outside their legally mandated scope of practice."
Actually that is not what is happening. We reviewed the scope of practice in our previous article and there is nothing in any of the examples Lindsay uses to show the chiropractors acted outside of their scope.
What is really happening is that the BC Regulatory Board had to create a made up Policy for evidence informed practice in order to get their crackdown going.
Their Policy is made up because there is no definition of evidence informed practice in the scientific literature that comes close to what they just made up.
If their make believe Policy was adopted by the medical profession in Canada, health care would come to a grinding halt since according to facts only about 15% of medical interventions have any research supporting them.
A grade school student who knows how to use the GOOGLE could figure that out but a regulatory board and an investigative journalist can't?
Lindsay, the Registrar and the Board leave those facts completely out of their reporting and public comments and then make false statements that these chiropractors are practicing outside their scope.
According to Simpson these 50 chiropractors are in the minority as he claims that 97% B.C.'s 1,200 chiropractors complied.
Since Simpson claims "We treat any contravention of policy very seriously" then we assume he is also investigating all the Board members who are in violation of their own Policy and that they are included in the 50 he has in his sights.
Fanning the flames even more, Simpson is calling on the public to file even more complaints stating "We also encourage the public to inform the college directly . . ." because he ". . . may on occasion miss items."
Lindsay and the Boards' sleight of hand on the matter is also evident in the reporting on the college board's former vice-chair Avtar Jassal DC who resigned from his position after he was attacked for suggesting the best way to combat the flu was to strengthen your immune system and that one way to do that was by consuming fresh smoothies and juices.
Since no one can argue with that advice, Lindsay instead makes the false statement that Jassal claimed "smoothies are more effective than the flu shot" when he did not.
Even mainstream medicine lists other recommendations to avoid getting the flu as: getting plenty of rest, eating a healthy diet, drinking plenty of fluids, and getting plenty of exercise.
According to the American Council on Exercise, research has shown that moderate exercise brings about measurable changes in the immune system, sending white blood cells to find intruders and kill them.
Rita Beckford, MD, a spokeswoman for the American Council on Exercise, also cites studies that show that those who exercise four to five times a week are less likely to get colds or other viruses.
Should we expect the authorities to take her license away from her?
