February 13, 2001 – A law passed in December by the Parliament of British Columbia, one of Canada’s ten provinces, legally recognizes the title of Doctor of Chinese Medicine. This legislation, a first in North America, made doctors of Chinese medicine a medical profession recognized by the official health system.
The profession will be under the authority of the College of Acupuncturists and Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioners of British Columbia, which replaces the College of Acupuncturists, which has supervised acupuncture since 1984.
The title of “Doctor of Chinese Medicine” is a general title granted to people trained in the five main areas of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), namely acupuncture, herbal medicine, Qi Gong, Tui Na (Chinese massage). ) and rehabilitation exercises like Tai Ji. The regulations adopted in British Columbia provide that practitioners may have one or more of the titles of TCM Herbalist, TCM Practitioner, Registered Acupuncturist or Doctor of Chinese Medicine, depending on their training.
According to Randy Wong, Registrar of the New Expanded College, “the most exciting aspect of the legislation, which is probably the first of its kind in the West, is the recognition that certain herbs and formulas in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia can only be prescribed by doctors. recognized practitioners. This opens the way to a prescription system similar to that of drugs and will better protect the public against the effects of certain plants which can be very beneficial but which are difficult to use ”.
Mr. Mason Loh, president of the College of Acupuncturists and one of the artisans who prepared the regulations for several years, thanked the provincial government “for seeing the importance of traditional Chinese medicine and the role it can play in improving the health of the people of British Columbia. Acupuncture and TCM will complement the health system and will prevent certain chronic diseases while reducing the costs of others ”.
In 1998, the British Columbia Health Professions Council recommended to the BC Minister of Health the creation of a new health profession, without limiting its scope of practice. Registration of TCM practitioners who may benefit from a “grandfather clause” will likely begin as early as this year, soon after regulations allowing for law enforcement are passed by the government.
British Columbia, and mainly the Vancouver region, is home to a very large population of Chinese origin, much of which arrived there less than twenty years ago, following the handover of Hong Kong to China.
HealthPassport.net
Source: College of Traditionnal Chinese Medicine, December 19, 2000
British Columbia Ministry of Health official documents: www.hlth.gov.bc.ca/leg/notice/acupuncture.html