[Acupuncture-students] integration of Acupuncture into the NHS

[Al Stone]

On Apr 27, 2004, at 10:57 AM, net and niall wrote:

> One thing that worries me is what will become of Acupuncture if it is 
> put
> under the same constraints as other general practice models, ie time 
> spent
> with patients, will traditional methods be abandoned etc

I'm less concerned with time constraints than with sub-standard 
training being the industry standard in areas in which acupuncture 
training is a few weekends rather than a few years.

I worked in a clinic that gave me three patients per hour there for a 
while. I got pretty good at diagnosing inside of a few minutes.

Once you have your chief complaint, and you know (from experience or 
education) what can cause that (SINGLE) chief complaint, it is a rather 
quick job to determine which cause applies and treat it.

However, those who treat from cookbooks aren't going to get the 
differentiations right and although there will be successful 
interventions, I have to wonder how long they'll last or how well the 
treatment will effect those symptoms that were not listed as the chief 
complaint or covered by the insurance/NHS.

Al Stone, L.Ac.
Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.
-Adlai Stevenson