Thirsk Chiropractic Clinic

What is Chiropractic?

Chiropractic is a statutorily regulated healthcare profession and not just a treatment. Chiropractors use a wide range of interventions including manipulation, mobilisation, soft tissue techniques, exercise rehabilitation and self management advice. Our practitioners have also undertaken courses and qualifications in other areas of health care and are, therefore, able to offer a wide variety of evidence based treatments for the benefit of patients.

Chiropractors treat the causes of pain associated with many of the problems of modern living. They use their hands to adjust the joints of the spine and other parts of the body where signs of restriction in movement are found. This adjustment improves mobility of the joints and relieves pain by restoring normal function. The body's own healing processes are then able to get on with the task of improving health.

Chiropractors today treat many thousands of patients every week for a wide variety of ailments affecting all parts of the body. Common problems that can be helped include:

• headache and migraine

• neck pain

• shoulder, arm, wrist and hand problems

• chest or abdominal pain

• back pain or sciatica

• hip, leg, knee, ankle and foot problems

• sports injuries

Chiropractors will also support the treatment they offer with counselling and advice about the patient's lifestyle, work, diet and exercise.

Chiropractic can be suitable for people of all ages and all walks of life, including new born babies, the elderly, pregnant women and sports enthusiasts.

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General Chiropractic Council

On June 14th 2001 chiropractic became a legally registered profession. The General Chiropractic Council (GCC) is the UK-wide statutory body which protects the public by regulating chiropractors, promoting high standards and ensuring that the contribution chiropractors make to the health of the nation is understood by all. It is now a criminal offence for anyone to practice chiropractic, or to call themselves a chiropractor, if they are not on the register. This means that the public will know that anyone calling themselves a chiropractor will have been properly trained and will have achieved a safe standard of competency.

The GCC has its own website which includes a copy of the register which is updated at frequent intervals. If you wish to find a chiropractor near to where you live or work then there is a search facility on the website so that you can easily locate the clinic that is the most convenient for you.

The GCC can be found at www.gcc-uk.org

British Chiropractic Association

The BCA is the oldest and largest Chiropractic Association in the United Kingdom having been founded in 1925 and it represents over 50% of UK chiropractors.  All BCA chiropractors will have undergone a minimum four-year full-time internationally-accredited undergraduate course and are registered with the General Chiropractic Council, the UK's statutory regulator for the profession.  The BCA aim to promote, encourage and maintain high standards of conduct, practice, education and training within the profession in the UK.

The BCA can be found at www.chiropractic-uk.co.uk

The Royal College of Chiropractors

The legislation underpinning the UK chiropractic profession, the Chiropractors' Act, received Royal ascent On 5th July 1994 and the Privy Council announced the membership of the General Chiropractic Council (GCC), the profession's registering body, on 28th January 1997.

During the intervening period, it became clear that the Act would not fulfil all the aspirations of the profession in terms of moving into the mainstream of healthcare; there was an obvious gap between the GCC as the registering body and the professional Associations acting as trade unions. This gap related to such areas as postgraduate education and training, research and specialisation.

On the advice of a senior medical figure, an organisational model similar to that of a Medical Royal College was devised. Thus, the College of Chiropractors was conceived during 1997 and incorporated in 1998 as an independent body to develop, encourage and maintain the highest possible standards of chiropractic practice for the benefit of patients.

Over the next couple of years the embryonic ‘College’ grew with a regional faculty infrastructure, the mainstay of the organisation, becoming firmly established in order to foster education locally. As an independent body, separate from any of the political groups, members were able to share information and expertise from all areas of the profession. Following its incorporation in October 1998, the College of Chiropractors was formally launched on 28th April 1999 at the King’s Fund.

The College is now an academic membership organisation with almost 3000 members worldwide, and the following objectives:

• to promote the art, science and practice of chiropractic;
• to improve and maintain standards in the practice of chiropractic for the benefit of the public;
• to promote awareness and understanding of chiropractic amongst medical practitioners and other healthcare professionals and the public;
• to educate and train practitioners in the art, science and practice of chiropractic;
• to advance the study of and research in chiropractic. 

The College actively fosters patient and public partnership through the Lay Partnership Group. It offers its membership a wide and growing range of benefits including a UK-wide programme of subsidised CPD events via a unique infrastructure of regional and clinical interest groups or 'faculties'. 

At a meeting of the Privy Council on Wednesday 12th November 2012, the Queen approved the grant of a Royal Charter to the College, the first Royal Charter to be granted to a complementary medicine organisation in the UK. Rarely granted, a Royal Charter signals permanence and stability and, in the College’s case, a clear indication to others of the leadership value and innovative approach the College brings to the development of the chiropractic profession. The Royal Charter essentially formalises the College’s position as a unique, apolitical, consultative body, recognising its role in promoting high practice standards and certifying quality and thus securing public confidence.

In February 2013, the Queen also gave permission for the College to change its name to The Royal College of Chiropractors. The title Royal was sought to help the public understand that the College has a similar role to the Medical Royal Colleges in terms of promoting standards for practice quality, running postgraduate training for new graduates, providing continuing professional development opportunities and supporting research.

Tim Jay, Founding President of The Royal College of Chiropractors, said:

‘It is particularly important, now that NHS funding for chiropractic treatment is emerging, that patients are aware of their treatment choices, that they know the care chiropractors provide for low back pain is a valid option supported by NICE and that the familiar entity of a Royal College is helping to support their interests.'


The RCC can be found at www.rcc-uk.org

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