How responsible professional conduct is defined and supervised?

Health legislation and federation-specific ethical rules of conduct regulate the work of regulated personnel (professionals), while supervising bodies control their work. To safeguard patients’ rights according to "responsible professional conduct", duty of confidentiality, duty of documentation, ethical rules, rules for insurance and marketing have been put in place.

The supervising bodies in European countries differ substantially in how they relate CAM to "responsible professional conduct" of regulated personnel. In the Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden, for example, only a minor part of CAM treatments are regarded as "responsible professional conduct", while in Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, and Poland, most CAM treatments are regarded as "responsible professional conduct". In the other countries some CAM, most often acupuncture, chiropractics, osteopathy or homeopathy are regarded as "responsible professional conduct". If regulated personnel practise CAM, the treatment must, of course, be considered as "responsible professional conduct" by the supervising body in that country. If this body finds the treatment not to be "responsible professional conduct", the individuals’ authorisation / license / title may be retracted.

In some countries the authorities have delegated the regulation, registration and supervising authority to the medical federations. In countries with an "all-regulated system" (e.g. Austria, France, Italy, Slovenia, and Spain), the medical federations are thus given the authority of defining which CAM treatments can be made available to the public.