Overview of the history of osteopathy in Belgium

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In Belgium the practice of osteopathy dates from the 1960's-70. The first osteopaths were trained in Great Britain , in the European School of Osteopathy.

From the beginning of the 1970's, similar schools were created in France and in Belgium later on.

In 1975, the first practitioners founded the Société Belge d'Ostéopathie et de Recherche en Thérapie Manuelle (Belgian Society of Osteopathy and Society for Research into Manipulative Therapy). Soon after the Association Belge des Ostéopathes (Belgian Association of Osteopaths) was created.

The SBO-BVO - UP (Professional Union), founded in 1986, stems from the merging of the two pre-existing associations.

On 16 September 1986, the Belgian Osteopaths DO founded the Professional Union "SBO-BVO" during the Summit conference organised in Louvain-La-Neuve.

They lodged an application for the recognition of the Professional Union with the Conseil d'Etat (the Highest Administrative Court of Justice in Belgium ).

The petition of the Belgian Professional Union of Osteopaths was accepted on 26 May 1993.

On 12 March 1996, Minister Pinxten appointed the SBO-BVO - UP to represent osteopaths to the consultative organs of the Ministry of Middle Classes.

In its plenary session of 29 May 1997, the European Parliament asked the Commission to embark on the process of recognising non-conventional medicine, among which Osteopathy.

At the end of August 1997, following the resolution voted by the European Parliament and to answer our desire to regulate the osteopathic profession, Minister of Public Health Marcel Colla decided to gather the different professions in order to grant them a status: osteopathy, homeopathy, chiropractic and acupuncture.

Immediately after the adoption by the Senate of the Draft Bill of the Minister of Public Health Marcel Colla (socialist) on 22 April 1999, the SBO-BVO asked to be registered as a representative organisation in the Joint Committee and in the "Chambre d'Ostéopathie" (Chamber of Osteopathy).

In May 1999, the Fédération des Mutualités Socialistes (Federation of Socialist Mutual Insurances) publicly announced that their additional insurance policy would include a partial refund of the fee for osteopathic treatment. Other Mutual Insurances would later on follow this decision.

In 2000, Minister Magda Aelvoet decided to make a first step towards the recognition of certain professional organisations of homeopathy, acupuncture, osteopathy, chiropractic so that the Authorities would finally have good bases of discussion for negotiations.

Jef Taverniers succeeded to Magda Alvoet and recognised the Professional Unions, among which the SBO-BVO in the Royal Decree of 10 February 2003.

On 27 January 2002, Claude Rousseau, DO, (Vice-President of the SBO-BVO and General Secretary of the European Federation of Osteopaths) founded, on the basis of specific criteria in the socio-professional and academic fields, the Groupement National Représentatif des Professionnels de l'Ostéopathie, GNRPO (National Grouping Representative for the Professionals of Osteopathy). The six Professional Unions recognised by the Conseil d'Etat decided to be members of the GNRPO.

On 22 June 2002, the GNRPO consisted of five Professional Unions.

From 1 January 2003 and on, all the Mutual Insurances of the country refer to the list of the GNRPO. This means that only the patients treated by an osteopath DO affiliated in a recognised Professional Union member of the GNRPO will receive a partial refund of the fee for osteopathic treatment.

The statutes of the non-profit organisation, GNRPO asbl, were published at the end of 2003.