Filenews 1 December 2025 - by Marilena Panayi
The voices of protest are increasing, as well as the warnings about the proposed law, which is being studied by the Parliamentary Committee on Health and concerns the provision of naturopathic and traditional acupuncture/electroacupuncture services. Patients and the acupuncture company of Physiotherapists are sounding the alarm and with their announcements, they call on the Parliament to withdraw the bill, fully agreeing with the positions of the Pancyprian Medical Association last week.
This proposal, as they state, introduces practices and techniques of dubious quality but also of dubious safety for citizens/patients.
The professionals, in fact, point out in their announcement that although the proposal directly concerns acupuncture and the practice of health professions, the scientific society, as the competent scientific body of the Pancyprian Association of Physiotherapists for acupuncture issues, has not been invited to any phase of the consultation, which it characterizes as "institutionally unacceptable, scientifically dangerous and unethical".
"The proposed legislation opens a dangerous path for the intrusion of anti-scientific and anti-vaccination views into the state's health policy, both within the GHS and in the private sector, since anti-vaccination action and rhetoric is a central element of their ideological view of health and disease," the scientific society argues.
At the same time, it states that the adoption of the proposal will make Cyprus a "negative exception and a laughing stock in Europe", will undermine the principles of evidence-based medicine and will allow the entry of unscientific and anti-vaccination perceptions into the health system. He also speaks of a "health coup", noting that the necessary credibility check of the group that promotes naturopathy has not been carried out, as a result of which the Parliament was misled.
The EBFK argues that the proposed law attempts to institutionalize naturopathy as a health profession, using acupuncture as a "legislative vehicle" and a "Trojan horse" and emphasizes that naturopathy is not a recognized health profession in Europe, is not based on evidence-based diagnostic practices, is internationally classified as alternative/complementary practices and does not correspond to university-level studies in health sciences.
The Society calls on the Parliamentary Committee on Health to immediately invite the EBFK for consultation and the parties to reject the draft law which, as it states in conclusion: endangers public health, legitimizes unscientific practices, downgrades the role of health professionals and damages the international image of Cyprus.
The position of the Federation of Cyprus Patients' Associations is also strong, which in its own announcement claims that the proposed law "is in direct contradiction with the principles of documented practice and essentially legitimizes techniques of dubious effectiveness and quality within the health system".
"Patient safety is non-negotiable and is the first principle of any health system," OSAK states and adds that, among other things, "the proposed law brings together heterogeneous practices such as herbs, energy therapies, dubious diagnostic methods, various acupuncture variants, without any clear distinction in terms of scientific background."
Also, "the proposed law allows the professionals included to advise patients with chronic diseases, administer herbal therapies and supplements, with real pharmacological actions, and use invasive methods such as needles and electricity. Without a high level of classical clinical training, this leads to errors, interactions and possible delayed diagnosis and treatment of serious underlying clinical conditions."
OSAK refers to the World Health Organization which "in its strategies for traditional and complementary medicine clearly states that:
- No practice should be integrated into health systems without a rigorous safety and efficacy assessment
- Adjustment should be based on clinical risk
- Patients must be protected from practices without sufficient scientific basis or with misleading claims."
"In our view, the proposed law leads to a dangerous confusion between scientific medicine and unsubstantiated practices. It legitimizes practices without proven effectiveness, disregards the principle of safety, does not ensure a transparent and controlled level of education, and creates fertile ground for the substitution of evidence-based treatments by practices without reliable data."
The Federation of Cyprus Patients' Associations "aligning its positions with the Pancyprian Medical Association, calls on the parliamentary parties to reject the bill before them.
It is recalled that last Friday the Pancyprian Medical Association had taken a public position on the issue with its representatives warning of serious risks from the possible passage of the law proposal into law.
The bill was discussed last Thursday, in principle, in the parliamentary health committee. Doctors and organized patients were not invited to participate in the meeting.
