Allegations of extravagant pay, poor management and quackery have split the chiropractic fraternity, with a rebel group forming an alternative representative body.
Disgruntled chiropractors have accused their peak body, the Chiropractic Association of Australia, of lurching towards the radical over its sympathy for the anti-vaccination movement and the theory of subluxation, which holds that spinal manipulation can treat illnesses from asthma to heart disease.
Its president-elect is Helen Alevaki, who has admitted in a closed Facebook group to paying "sneaky" visits to Melbourne maternity hospitals to perform spinal adjustments on newborn babies.
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Earlier this week, Queensland authorities investigated a chiropractor who visited Bundaberg Hospital to perform an infant spinal manipulation without staff permission.
But quarrels within the chiropractic community have been magnified by attacks on their credibility by mainstream medicine, with CAA members complaining the peak body has not mounted an effective public relations defence.
There are around 4500 practising chiropractors in Australia, 2500 of whom are members of the CAA.
The breakaway group, Chiropractic Australia, claims already to have 1000 members on its books.
Chiropractic Australia president Rod Bonello said his organisation would be premised on chiropractors being non-surgical spinal and musculoskeletal care experts, while the CAA was returning to radical theories such as subluxation.
"Our view is that we shouldn't be based on some fundamentalist beliefs that originated in the 1800s but we should be evidence-based practitioners, just like every other association in Australia," Mr Bonello said.
"We are looking to become full players in the health care system, not some marginal alternative group.
