Is the General Chiropractic Council about to disallow chiropractic in the UK?

The ‘Code of Professional Practice‘ for UK chiropractors (applicaple from 1.1.2026) has just been published by the UK General Medical Council (GCC). It demands in no uncertain terms numerous things from chiropractors:

• You must put the interests of patients first
• You must ensure safety and quality in clinical practice
• You must act with honesty and integrity and maintain
• You must provide a good standard of clinical care and professional practice
• You must establish and maintain clear professional
• You must obtain appropriate, valid consent from patients
• You must communicate professionally, properly and effectively
• You must foster collaborative healthcare, effective professional relationships and safe, supportive workplace practice
• You must maintain, develop and work within your professional knowledge and skills
• You must maintain and protect patient information

It seems obvious to me that many of these demands cannot possibly met. Let me just pick two examples. The code explains that, as a chiropractor, you must:

1. protect patients by promoting and maintaining a culture of safety, seeking to prevent harm before it occurs.
2. use the findings of the clinical assessment and the best quality of evidence that is available at the time, to propose (and record) a plan of care for the patient. You must tell the patient where your proposals are not supported by evidence of accepted quality and record your rationale and discussions.

Ad 1

Chiropractors administer spinal manipulations to well over 90% of their patients regardless of their condition or complaint. As we have often discussed on this blog, such treatments are not free of serious risks. It follows that preventing harm from patients and earning your living as a chiro is not really possible. Either you do one or you do the other; to be able to do both at the same time seems pure fantasy.

Ad 2

If chiropractors were to use the findings of the best quality of evidence that is available at the time, they would have to stop using spinal manipulation, a treatment that is, for many indications chiros use it, not supported by the best available evidence. But, as I already mentioned, spinal manipulation is the main therapy of chiros. Following the GCC’s demand is therefore an impossibility.

What is the solution?

Will the new code really disallow UK chiropractors to practice?

No! I fear that the solution is much simpler than it may look at first glance.

The GCC has in the past issued similar demands only to then do nothing to enforce them. Like past documents, the new code will turn out to be a document that changes nothing, except that it makes GCC members feel good: it allows them (and some consumers) the illusion that UK chiropractic an evidence-based, ethical and well-regulated profession.