THE FOUNDATION OF THE BRITISH ACUPUNCTURE COUNCIL AND REGISTRATION OF MEMBERS

The British Acupuncture Council was formed twenty years ago in 1995. It resulted from the merger of five previously established registers, which were themselves all tied to an individual acupuncture college in this country. These organisations were the Register of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the Traditional Acupuncture Society (whose members gave me my first acupuncture treatments), the British Acupuncture Association and Register, the Chung San Acupuncture Society, and the International Register of Oriental Medicine.

Intense negotiations took place between represenstatives of the different registers, some of whom came from very different acupuncture traditions. It was to the benefit of all that the resulting organisation was an umbrella organisation for acupuncturists practising the two principle styles in this country – TCM (traditional Chinese medicine) acupuncture and Five Element acupuncture, as well as other traditions, such as Japanese-style acupuncture and Stems-and-Branches. Regardless of the heritage an individual practitioner might carry (and most practitioners will have a wide knowledge and may be working from more than one school of training), there were to be the same high standards of education, training, and safety for all members of the British Acupuncture Council.

In the nineties, the British Acupuncture Council (BAcC) was involved in negotiations with the Labour government with a view to moving towards statutory self-regulation. This would have helped to protect the title “acupuncturist” in the same way that somebody without the relevant training cannot open up a shop and call themselves a dentist. Sadly, despite lots of hard work, this did not come to fruition, and the regulation-lite approach of the Coalition and subsequent Conservative governments has pushed this to one side.

At the moment, therefore, it is possible for anybody to refer to themselves as an acupuncturist regardless of any training requirements. That is why it is so important that members of the public only ever go for acupuncture treatment with a registered member of the British Acupuncture Council. They will know that this practitioner is fully-insured and is trained to a high degree in the practical application of acupuncture, in the medical theories behind it, and also has a high working knowledge of anatomy and western physiology/pathology.