The American physician and founding osteopath Dr Andrew Taylor Still founded the science of osteopathy in 1874 in the USA.
Around the turn of the century, one of his students, Martin Littlejohn, returned to England and, in 1917, he founded the British School of Osteopathy.
Since then the knowledge and popularity of osteopathy has grown.
The Osteopaths Act of 1993 established the General Osteopathic Council (GOsC) making osteopathy the first complementary-healthcare profession to be statutorily recognised.
This bill ensures that every osteopathic practitioner in the UK has to be qualified and registered with the GOsC.
The GOsC requires very high standards of practice, ethics and continual professional development from its members, which results in better osteopathy for every patient.
In 1993 osteopathy became the first major complementary health care profession to be accorded statutory recognition under the 1993 Osteopaths Act. This culminated in the opening of the statutory register of osteopaths by the General
Osteopathic Council in May 1998. Only those practitioners able to show that they have been in safe and competent practice of osteopathy will be allowed onto the register and in future all osteopaths will be trained to the same high rigorous standards. All osteopaths need to have medical malpractice insurance and to follow a strict code of conduct. Patients have the same safeguards as when they consult a doctor or dentist.