The Quality Control and Application for ACMP members
A.Introduction
Since ACMP established 10 years ago, ACMP emphasizes that practitioners education and proper training are the key to safeguard the public interests(safety and efficacy). Our association keeps following two principles to qualification control for member’s application according to their practice features: (1).For CM (including Chinese herbal Medicine) practitioners ,their qualification should have more than 3 years medicine education and more than 1yr proper training(see the annex in details); (2)For Chinese therapy massage (tuina) practitioners only need at least 3 months full time education and proper training or 6 months for part time.
B. CM practitioners quality Control
Most of CM practitioners use multiple treatment methods at the same times (Chinese herbal medicine ,acupuncture ,tuina, cupping and so on),these practitioners need high qualification to safe practice:(1) having diagnosis and different diagnosis capability(including symptoms and diseases diagnosis and different diagnosis);(2)understanding how to judge patients conditions(week or firmness; superficial or inward; cold or heat; chronic or acute, mild or serious );(3)family with Chinese herbs and their formula meanings, having a capability to choose proper herbs formula to deal with the conditions according to the basic theories;(4) understanding the signs of side effects(especially for bleeding , kidney ,liver and heart),early finding and promptly relieve;(5) objectively judge the therapy results, and find way to improve the results;(6) keeping case records for references.
90-95% of CM practitioners in the ACMP belong to the First Group standards shown in the annex， that mean they had 5 years university formal education and training，with the title of CM doctor in China. All of CM practitioners in the ACMP fulfill the requirements shown above. Some of them had master or/and PhD high degree.
C. Tuina (Chinese therapy massage) practitioners quality control
Recent years, there are a lot of Tuina(Chinese therapy massage) practitioners in the UK, they engage the tuina practice only, never use or not allow them to use Chinese herbal medicine or acupuncture. They are not qualified to enter the statutory regulation in HPC in the future, but they belong to the accessory part of CM profession, it is reasonable to give them some voluntary self regulation. ACMP provides this kind of regulation to them.
Most of Tuina practitioners do joints pain , muscle strain relieve , relaxation therapy and so on, these belong to the primary care, more complicated tuina therapy normally carries out by CM doctors. So for primary care practitioners , for their qualification requirement should be much different from the practitioners who use herbs. Before someone misunderstood our association’s qualification control , because of lack of sense and confusion the qualification requirement difference between CM practitioners and tuina primary care practitioners. We are very sorry for it.
The tuina primary care practitioners should have some basic training for their practice:(1) they should have at least 3 months full time education and clinic training(6 months for part time);(2) Understanding the basic anatomy structures for the human being, avoiding use force to the fragile important organs(for example kidney ,spleen and liver) area for the safe reason;(3) skillfully using different massage techniques on the different parts of the body ,to achieve the better outcome;(4)forbidding any sex and sex relevant behaves, keeping high moral standards for practice(the discipline backgrounds see ACMP regulations part A4).
D. Application procedures
ACMP welcome the CM practitioners and tuina primary care practitioners to join us, whoever satisfies our qualification requirements according to their practice feature.
Application procedures are: Download the ACMP application form (Chinese or English version);
Fill the form in details and attach the necessary documents(copies are acceptable) to prove you education , training and experience background;
Along with the filled form and documents ,please attach a photo and a cheque of £80.00 payable to ACMP for one year admission charge and post to :
ACMP 96 Cuckoo Dene Hanwell, London W7 3DR
If it is necessary, we will make a appointment for interview; When you received the certification from ACMP, the date of issue the certification is your admission date to the ACMP. (April ,2012)
Annex: the overview about education standards and credentials of Chinese Medicine doctors or practitioners in the UK