Natural medicine” to be regulated by a draft law

Santo Domingo, DR
The Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) senator, Franklin Romero, filed a bill to regulate “alternative natural medicine.”

The bill also includes practices such as complementary therapies, as well as various products and their commercialization.

In the first article, the bill establishes that it seeks to guarantee and promote the rational, informed, safe and effective use of practices and therapies that integrate traditional and complementary medicine.

To this end, the bill seeks to integrate natural medicine and alternative therapies into the National Health System and that the Ministry of Public Health will be the body that will promote and inform on the application of these practices.

Among the terms and concepts stipulated in the bill are essential oils, natural and integrative medicine; conventional or predominant medicine; cosmovision of natural medicine, naturopathic establishments, ethnobotany, and phytotherapy, among others.

Beyond placing all alternative medicine practices, it submits each of them to an analysis of the quality of care established by the Ministry of Public Health.

The body in charge of health will also be able to make consultations on everything related to natural medicine, complementary therapies, or natural products in order to confirm their legality.

Sales of products and services

Regarding the sale of natural products, Public Health will regulate the professional practice of natural medicine, and only persons with the corresponding training will be authorized to practice it.

For this purpose, Public Health will grant a sanitary and professional registration for the correct practice of natural medicine.

Regarding the products, the quality of the preparation, elaboration, distribution, and commercialization will be under the responsibility of Public Health, who must be present in each process.

Additional detail is that the State will encourage monetary, fiscal, and credit policies that allow the development of the national production of natural products.