Does workforce regulation have the intended effect? The case of Chinese medicine practitioner registration.

The Chinese Medicine Registration Act was passed through Victorian parliament in 2000, based on policy research that suggested the need for statutory registration as a means for protecting public health and safety. This paper reports on the implementation and the effect of this policy. By examining registration, complaints and prosecution data from the Chinese Medicine Registration Board as well as comparing the complaints data between 2003 and 2007 across all Victorian registration boards, this paper considers the extent to which the policy research and the policy intent were justified. Based on the experience of the Chinese Medicine Registration Board, the paper points to issues that should be further considered as Chinese medicine moves into the national registration scheme in July 2012.