Below is a copy of the statement from the Prince's Foundation for Integrated Health announcing the closure of the charity.
30 April 2010
The Trustees of The Prince’s Foundation for Integrated
Health have decided to close the charity. Whilst the closure has been
planned for many months and is part of an agreed strategy, the Trustees
have brought forward the closure timetable as a result of a fraud
investigation at the charity.
The Trustees feel that The Foundation has achieved its key objective
of promoting the use of integrated health. Since The Foundation was set
up in 1993, integrated health has become part of the mainstream
healthcare agenda, with over half a million patients using complementary
therapies each year, alongside conventional medicine.
From 2000-2007, at the request of the Department of
Health, The Foundation ran a regulation programme which resulted in the
creation, in 2008, of an independent self-regulatory body for
complementary therapy, called the Complementary and Natural Healthcare
Council.
On 1st April 2010, the Secretary of
State for Health announced plans to introduce statutory regulation for
herbalists and to consider the equivalent for acupuncture.
The Trustees believe that the best way of promoting
integrated healthcare in the future is through the networks of
specialist practitioners which the charity has helped to establish.
These networks have brought together specialists and
proponents of integrated healthcare, such as doctors, nurses,
clinicians, consultants, scientists and students.
For
more information, contact Pat Goodall, 01246 410707, 07789 871234, pat.goodall@fih.org.uk
