Chiropractors could soon face an outright ban on spinal manipulation of infants, after health ministers agreed to reconsider the legal status of the practice.
Victorian Minister for Health Jenny Mikakos says she will commission an independent review on the safety of spinal manipulation and whether the national laws need to be updated to prohibit its use on children under 12.
She says the findings of the review, undertaken by the state’s healthcare safety and quality agency Safer Care Victoria, will be presented to state, territory and federal health ministers at the Council of Australian Governments’ health council later this year.
The announcement follows public outcry over a Melbourne chiropractor filmed dangling a two-week-old infant by its ankles before performing spinal manipulation.
The chiropractor in the video, Andrew Arnold of Cranbourne Family Chiropractic, has been temporarily restricted from treating children while the Chiropractic Board of Australia investigates his conduct.
However, the board has so far refused to outlaw the practice.
In a 2017 position statement, it said spinal manipulation could be performed in children if treatment was consistent with “current evidence and/or best-practice approaches”.
Ms Mikakos said that approach was unacceptable because the expert advice was clear the risks of the procedure on infants far outweighed any perceived benefits.
She told the Herald Sun: “I will not rest until I can be confident Victorian newborn babies are protected from practices we know to be harmful, and that we can be sure children under 12 are not being exposed to harm.”
Following a meeting on Friday, the health ministers said they “noted community concerns” about spinal manipulation on infants and agreed to consider the outcomes of the review.
They also pledged to look into increasing the penalties for false, misleading and deceptive advertising by chiropractors, to bring them in line with community expectations and penalties for other offences under the national laws.
The AMA and RACGP both supported a ban on spinal manipulation of children, but the Australian Chiropractors Association hit back at the proposal, arguing there was “very little evidence of harm” associated with the practice.
“Greater regulation in this area will not improve the healthcare provided to children; it will only remove a valuable care option,” a spokesperson said on Monday.
