Whanganui acupuncture practice supports lobby for recognition

Acupuncturist Jason Zhang, along with wife Jessica Yuan and colleague Ran Liu, has been practising in Whanganui for 21 years. Photo / Liz Wylie

Whanganui acupuncturist Jason Zhang has seen a lot of customers during his 21 years of practice in the city.

His wife Jessica Yuan and their fellow practitioner Ran Liu are members of New Zealand's largest professional body for acupuncturists, Acupuncture NZ, which has welcomed a recent UK decision to include acupuncture in its new national guidelines for the treatment of patients with chronic primary pain.

The United Kingdom's National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) has recognised acupuncture as an effective treatment for chronic pain - and now Acupuncture NZ, which has around 1200 registered members, would like to see similar recognition in New Zealand.

Although the acupuncture profession was awarded recognition under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance (HPCA) Act in 2007, the recognition was withdrawn in 2010 and the profession was advised it must reapply for recognition under the HPCA Act using the new and revised criteria.

For the past decade, the profession has worked to have recognition reinstated and formed the HPCA Act Working Group, comprising representatives from Chinese-medicine organisations, to meet the criteria stipulated by the Ministry of Health and a succession of Health Ministers.

"Just before Covid hit, we were making progress and were getting ready to go to the table," Zhang said. "Hopefully we can get back to productive discussions."

Acupuncturists are recognised ACC treatment providers yet they are still unrecognised under the HPCA.

Zhang said he and Yuan were also doctors and had worked in a hospital in China where acupuncture was an integral part of the health system and had been practiced for more than 5000 years.

"New Zealand has very good acupuncture training and lots of good practitioners - it is about the recognition," he said.

Acupuncture NZ spokeswoman Kate Roberts said acupuncture provided a viable alternative to prescription medicines as well as being a safe complementary treatment.

"The new UK-based guidelines make recommendations for treatments, including
acupuncture, that have been shown to be effective in managing chronic primary pain,"
she said.

Roberts said the lack of recognition under the HPCA Act meant the profession was unregulated in New Zealand, and she recommended that those seeking acupuncture treatment chose a practitioner who was fully qualified and registered with a professional body.

"The profession does do a good job of regulating itself but we need to be recognised under the HPCA to protect the public from underqualified practitioners."