Chinese medicine in NZ- the journey

The announcement by Health Minister Andrew Little on October 30, 2021 to regulate Chinese medicine has seen the professionals in acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine and tuina massage therapy at the brink of new opportunities to move from their current marginal role in the voluntary-regulated private health care to stronger roles within mainstream public health care.

Being regulated under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance (HPCA) Act 2003 means that the public is protected and assured that Chinese medicine practitioners are appropriately qualified and competent to practise. Other health professions regulated under the HPCA Act include nurses, dentists, midwives, chiropractors and osteopaths.

The appointed regulatory authority is Chinese Medicine Council which will determine the minimum levels of competence, standards of practice and qualifications for Chinese medicine practitioners.

Tim Haiselden

The quest for the Chinese medicine profession to be under statutory regulation went back to 2010 when the then professional association, New Zealand

Registrar of Acupuncturists (NZRA, now known as Acupuncture NZ) applied for the profession to come under the HPCA Act. The application aimed to broaden the voluntary regulation of the profession from its narrow and exclusive focus on traditional acupuncture to include Chinese medicine’s three branches: acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine and tuina massage therapy.

The shift to redefine the profession in New Zealand followed other countries like Australia, to provide the possibility of developing a system similar to that in China where “Chinese medicine doctors” work alongside “Western medicine doctors”’ as equals within an integrative health system.

When Tim Haiselden was the president of NZRA, he was in the forefront of working to secure the underpinning statutory regulation that the profession needed. He spent countless hours of submissions on consumer protection, advice to successive NZRA presidents and council members, meetings with Health Ministry officials and the veritable lobbying of politicians.

The acceptance of acupuncture into mainstream health services in New Zealand was given a shot in the arm in the 2012 New Year Honours. One of the highest civic awards, Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, was given to Tim in recognition of his years of commitment to the development of acupuncture and Chinese medicine.

Kevin Plaisted

Another name on the “hall of fame” of Chinese medicine development in New Zealand is Kevin Plaisted who was elected the President of NZRA in 1997. Working with a number of prominent NZRA members, like Adejola Olatunji and Tim Haiselden, he plunged into a series of administrative challenges to get acupuncture accredited with NZQA.

The NZRA had applied to register a standard for acupuncture which it could use for assessing membership. The simplistic model used by the

NZRA had to be transformed into teaching modules, with learning outcomes and time frames backed with assessment tools. After a lot of meetings, discussions and negotiating, the National Diploma of Acupuncture was successfully registered under NZQA in 1998.

Kevin was also involved with the application to include acupuncturists under the HPCA Act.

Successive NZRA presidents

At some points, NZRA morphed into a new identity, Acupuncture NZ. After Paddy McBride took over the reign of the presidency, she continued the tireless lobbying for Chinese medicine profession to be regulated under the HPCA Act. When it finally became a reality in October 2021, Robyn Kerr, current President of Acupuncture NZ, had the privilege to deliver the news to some 1200 practitioners in New Zealand.

Training and education

No profession is sustainable without a framework for teaching and training. Changes to legislation enabled Adejola Olatunji, founding director of the NZ School of Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine (NZSATCM), to work with NZRA and NZQA to form the Acupuncture Advisory Group. Following this, NZQA registered the National Diploma of Acupuncture in 1998.

It soon became a requirement that providers of acupuncture would need to be assessed against the National Standard (NDA). In conjunction with NZSATCM, the task of assessing the members was started.

Over the years since its humble beginning, NZSATCM has evolved to align itself with the worldwide trends. The development of a 3-year Bachelor of Health Science (Acupuncture) in 2021 is an example of NZSATCM repositioning itself to better serve the training and education needs of its learners. In February 2022, it lodged an application for approval and accreditation of the following graduate programmes, and pending NZQA approval, hopes to have the first intakes in July 2022:

• Graduate Certificate in Health Science (Tuina Massage Therapy)

• Graduate Certificate in Health Science (Chinese Herbal Medicine)

• Graduate Diploma in Health Science (Chinese Herbal

Medicine).

Into the future

Under the new health care reform, there are opportunities for Chinese medicine to be part of the public health care services.