Acupuncture & TCM in the News

From Canadian Press

TORONTO — Ontario will become the second province in Canada to regulate traditional Chinese medicine including acupuncture, herbs and tai chi as medical therapy.

"We owe it to the people of Ontario to ensure they are protected," Health Minister George Smitherman said Friday in making the announcement.

"But at the same time, we have to realize traditional forms of medicine have helped a great number of people for a very long time."

A new report will give the province guidelines on what forms of treatment will be regulated and what type of rules are necessary, said Smitherman.

Tony Wong, a Liberal member of parliament who helped write the report, said traditional Chinese medicine has five branches: herbs, acupuncture, tai chi, tuina, and qigong. Tuina is a pressure point massage and qigong is a series of breathing exercises meant to help focus the energy in the body.

Tai chi is a form of gentle meditative exercise also used to focus energy in the body. Wong said its use would only be regulated for medical treatment, not as a form of exercise.

Wong said there is a very strong need for regulation in the province.

"As it stands now, anybody can go and practice acupuncture and traditional chinese medicine. I can go right now and do it," he said. While he added that there was no official documentation of cases of traditional medicine being misused by people who aren't qualified to practice it, he said he had heard a few horror stories.

"I've heard that on a number of occasions, people have left needles inside bodies of patients. I don't want to call them practitioners," he said.

Smitherman said regulation will add legitimacy to the practice.

"Ontarians, regardless of their culture, are ones that would become quite accustomed to the idea that only those that have obtained a certain standard would be in the position to use a title like doctor."

Wong said that sentiment was echoed by almost all the groups consulted in the report's preparation.

Dr. Mary Wu, president of the Toronto School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, said she was educated in China in both Western and traditional medication. Her school offers a five-year doctor of traditional Chinese medicine.

She said regulation would be good for her profession as it will make people less skeptical.

"With more and more research coming out to prove the effectiveness of acupuncture and also the better understanding of this type of medicine, people are going to change."

Stan Nicol, the CEO of the group set up to regulate traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture in B.C., said that province's system of accreditation and regulation is running smoothly.

His group works like the College of Physicians of Surgeons for doctors; it makes sure the nearly 1,000 members are licensed and handles complaints if they arise. One of the report's main recommendations is for the formation of a similar regulatory group in Ontario.

B.C. put regulation in place for acupuncturists in 1999 and for other types of traditional medicine in 2001. He said the initial adjustment phase was a bit bumpy.

"Chinese medicine has to a large degree over the centuries been handed down in sort of a master-student relationship," said Nicol, which meant that many qualified practitioners in B.C. didn't have what would be considered proper certification under new regulations.

He said these people, if they could prove they were capable based on experience, were "grandfathered," through the process, which means they were allowed to practice without getting additional qualifications.

But it was still tricky to figure out who qualified for this classification.

He said a few court cases resulted from people who felt they had been unfairly disqualified, but that almost five years later the process is running "smoothly."

Wong said a similar grandparents process is recommended for practitioners in Ontario.