July 27th, 2020

Dear Member,

BC Registered Acupuncturists, TCM practitioners and Doctors have been waiting for 22 years to have our Scope of Practice reviewed and updated to reflect our current clinical practices. The Ministry of Health has continually delayed approval of proposed amendments that would allow the CTCMA to update our Scope of Practice. 24 of the 26 regulated health professions in BC have now had their scope of practice modernised to line up with the Health Professions Act, yet we are left waiting for no apparent logical reason.

The longer we are left to wait the more vulnerable we become. Case-in-point: some ATCMA members have recently received letters of investigation for practices in which they are trained and for which they are certified and insured. The College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC is declaring that certain therapies performed by CTCMA registrants constitutes “practising medicine”. One of these therapies is PDO thread lifting for facelifts. The CTCMA stopped the use of PDO thread lifting several years ago, but certain registrants continuing to use these techniques caused the CPSBC to scrutinize and challenge other procedures we use. The CPSBC does not appear to object to CTCMA registrants performing Point Injection Therapy, but it is not currently in our Scope of Practice and is therefore vulnerable to challenge. The fact that the CPSBC lens is now on our profession reinforces the need to update our Scope of Practice before the amalgamation of Colleges occurs. You may not be practicing PIT, but did you know that even compounding TCM herbs and Tui-Na are not listed as restricted acts under our Scope of Practice? This could lead to major challenges for a majority of registrants when we amalgamate if our scope is not updated now.

We need a forceful, cohesive voice calling on the BC government to direct the Ministry of Health to approve our long-overdue scope update. Anne Kang, MLA for Burnaby-Deer Lake, is going to present a motion on this in the BC legislature on August 10th. We need you to gather as many signatures as possible on the attached petition and mail hard copies to the ATCMA office (we must provide hard copies, not electronic copies). They need to arrive before the 6th of August. This will be the first phase. We also want you to collect as many signatures as you can over the coming weeks and months and send completed petitions to the ATCMA office.

To-Do List:

  1. Get the petition signed by patients and supporters of acupuncture and TCM. Mail as many signed petitions as you can so that they arrive at the ATCMA office by August 6th.
  2. Continue to get as many petitions signed and patient letters written as possible and send them to the ATCMA on an ongoing basis. We need the originals. We will be releasing form letters soon.
  3. Contact your MLA and ask for a meeting to discuss TCM/Acupuncture and the urgent need for our scope of practice update.

The ATCMA needs your support and action to accomplish this long-overdue amendment to the Acupuncture and TCM Scope of Practice. The CTCMA must have the power to update and regulate what our profession actually does in 2020. Delaying this further puts us at risk of untenable scope restrictions once the amalgamation of regulatory colleges comes into effect. Failure to act now could spell disaster in the future.

ATCMA-Scope of Practice Letterhead

ATCMA Scope of Practice Petition

尊敬的会员,

卑詩省注册针灸师， 中医执业人员及医师22年以来一直等待对以配合当前临床实践的执业范围的重审及更新。卫生部無緣無故延迟批准CTCMA更新我们的执业务范围的提议修正案。 目前，卑诗省26个受监管的卫生专业中已有24个专业对其执业范围进行了现代化更改，而与《卫生执业法》保持一致。

我们的等待时间越长，我们就越容易受到伤害。比如：近期有些ATCMA的会员们在即使获得相關的培訓和保險的前提下， 也收到了调查函。 CPSBC宣佈CTCMA注册者所进行的某些疗法可列爲“临床医学”。其疗法之一是用于瘦脸的PDO螺纹提升。CTCMA在几年前就停止并取消对PDO线程的使用，某些注册师因继续使用此技术而引起了CPSBC对我们使用其他疗法的审查及挑战。虽然CPSBC并不反对CTCMA注册师使用穴位注射疗法，但此疗法也不在我们的执业范围内，因此很容易受到挑战。 关键是CPSBC现关注在我们的执业范围上，因此我们应在合并管理局之前更新我们的业务范围的需求。即便您可能没有在執業PIT，但中草药和Tui-Na 复方也未列为我们的执业范围内的约束执业内， 如果我们现在不更新范围，在合并时，将可能给大多数注册师带来重大挑战。

因此我们需要一个强而有凝聚力的声音，呼吁卑詩省政府听取意见，并请示卫生部批准我们早该进行的执业范围更新。 本那比-鹿湖（Burnaby-Deer Lake）的MLA 康安禮（Anne Kang）将于8月10日在卑诗省立法机构中就此提出议案。 我们需要您在随附的请愿书中收集尽可能多的签名，然后将纸质请愿书邮寄到ATCMA办公室（我们必须提供纸质原件，而不是电子原件）。 请愿书需要在8月6日之前到达。 这还将是第一阶段。 我们希望您在未来几周和几个月内收集尽可能多的签名，且将完整的请愿书发送给ATCMA办公室。

待办事项清单：

  1. 取得患者和针灸和中医支持者签名的请愿书。 尽可能多的邮寄已签名的请愿书，以便它们在8月6日前邮寄到ATCMA办公室。
  2. 继续签署更多的请愿书并写出患者的信件，并将其发送给ATCMA。 我们只需原件， 且将会尽快发布模板信函。
  3. 请您与您的MLA联系，要求召开会议以讨论中医/针灸的更新和我们执业范围的迫切需要。

ATCMA需要您的支持及行动，来完成对针灸和中医执业范围的逾期未决修订。 CTCMA需有权更新及规范我们的专业在2020年的实际临床工作。一旦将监管管理局合并生效，现在拖延可能使我们面临执业范围不受约束的风险。 现在不采取行动也许会在未来造成巨大的挑战。

 

执业范围请愿书

执业范围请愿书-签名
感谢您的帮助,
Thank you,
ATCMA