Way Forward for Chinese Medicine by Henry Lee

Author:Henry Lee
Format: mobi
Tags: Bioscience & Clinical Medicine
Publisher: Taylor and Francis CRC ebook account
Published: 2007-04-16T00:00:00+00:00

Present Progress of Chinese Medicine

THE PRESENT SITUATION OF CHINESE MEDICINE IN BELGIUM

The practice of acupuncture in Belgium

There are three kinds of acupuncturists: medical doctors (MD), physiotherapists (PT), and others (including graduates from China, CMD). There are two main professional organizations, one for MD, one for PT. According to the statistics from NVA—the Dutch Association of Acupuncturists, there are about 400 MDs to 100 PT (on paper). Realistically, there could be about 30 MD and 15 PT, practising acupuncture as their main activity, i.e. those who treat more than 10 patients per week. There are five CMDs (or OMD) who were trained in the traditional method in China (four of Chinese nationality and one of Belgian nationality). Most acupuncturists are in private practice and a few in the pain clinic of a regular hospital.

The training and education of acupuncture are only available on a part time basis from private schools. The courses are usually about eight weekends per year for two to three years. The best curriculum covers 200 to 300 hours of theory plus 100 to 200 hours of clinical practice. There are also some crash-courses of one to two weekends. They are referred to as scientific acupuncture without the traditional philosophy. The main MD-organization considers that a minimum of 200 hours is necessary in order to educate an acupuncturist properly. PT-organizations on the other hand propose at this moment 500 hours to attain the same target. CMD (OMD) had a full-time university curriculum of about 3500 hours.

Acupuncture is considered as a non-conventional medicine (or therapeutic technique). It is not legally recognized. Medical colleges prefer to ignore it. The academy of medicine rejects it. Legally, it is non-existent, but it is actually practised. There are two legal facts: Firstly, acupuncture practised by non-MD or non-PT is subjected to VAT. Secondly, piercing the skin with a needle, based on a medical examination and diagnosis and using a therapeutic objective, is considered a medical act; and this activity is reserved to MD. Similarly, little research is conducted into the use and effectiveness of acupuncture.

Despite this anomaly, acupuncture is much sought after by the public. It is also the most popular non-conventional medicine after homeopathy and chiropractice (and osteopathy). The public is quite oblivious of the "warring" that is going among the acupuncturists of different background and does not really differentiate between MD-acupuncturists and non-MD acupuncturists as revealed by a research

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