Chiropractic Care of Children Safe in NZ
Media Release
4th October 2013
Chiropractic Care of Children Safe in New Zealand
The New
Zealand Chiropractors’ Association (NZCA) is concerned
that recent media coverage has inaccurately reported
allegations about chiropractic care of children in Australia
and unnecessarily alarmed some New Zealand
patients.
The NZCA wishes reassure New Zealanders that
chiropractic care is one of the safest forms of primary
health care and to reiterate the points made by its sister
organisation, the Chiropractic Association of Australia
(CAA) last week.
The CAA has demanded the Australian
Sunday Age and the Australian Sun-Herald retract and correct
an erroneous claim made in those newspapers on 29th
September that an investigation by the Australian Health
Practitioner Regulation Agency found that ‘a Melbourne
infant’s neck was broken during a chiropractic
adjustment.’
In fact no such
finding was made.
In fact no finding
of inappropriate treatment by a chiropractor was
made.
In fact no finding was made
that any treatment performed by the chiropractor caused a
fracture as alleged.
The NZCA notes that the National
President of the CAA, Dr Laurie Tassell has gone on record
as saying: ‘It remains the case that not a single serious
adverse event has been recorded in the medical literature
(world-wide) involving a qualified chiropractor treating a
child since 1992.
NZCA President, Dr Corrian Poelsma
adds that: ‘New Zealand chiropractors are some of the best
trained in the world. Chiropractic training in this country
involves five years tertiary study and qualified
chiropractors are taught the appropriate primary care for
infants and children.
‘Thousands of younger patients
are seen by chiropractors in New Zealand each year with any
adverse events being extremely rare. Chiropractic care of
babies involves very safe, gentle adjustments; the light
techniques used would usually be similar in pressure to that
given to test a ripe tomato.’
For further information on the New Zealand Chiropractors’ Association visit www.chiropractic.org.nz.
ENDS