On reflection

Paul Blacker

GB Practitioner Member: Kent

When I put myself forward as a committee member and then Governing Board (GB) member, I never in my wildest Star Trek dreams thought we would be here in 2020. I realised and accepted I would be spending time on BAcC matters, but little did I know how much time this would turn out to be!

You’ll remember that back in March we were all asked to practise wuwei, to do by not doing by shutting down and ceasing practice as normal; then in July 2020 we began opening back up. As we move through late summer and with autumn approaching, we're all going into the metal time of year, and naturally our energies should be contracting, condensing, moving inwards and preparing to get ready for winter. But, in a yin-yang sort of way, as we open up again we are taking more of a wood approach with our practices. I don’t think any of us could have prepared ourselves for this.

I’m not sure I can remember a day over the past six months where I’ve not done some sort of work as a GB member – typically answering members’ emails, calling colleagues, working on policies, even managing to meet the odd practitioner occasionally (socially distanced of course), and following up on GB conversations on email and WhatsApp. We don’t just meet four times a year; we are in constant touch with each other over matters that come onto our radar.

So what is it I actually do, and how do I represent my fellow members as a GB member? Here’s just one example…

A student and a member emailed me with a question about blood donor certificates, what the current situation was, and why BAcC acupuncturists are not exempt. This led me to read up on past events in relation to this – when we had them, when we lost them, what the government's position is – speaking to past GB members to ask about the situation, and so on. From there I started to think about how to get them reinstated in a timely and effective manner.

Meetings with the safe practice officer Hannah, just before lockdown, and emails with all of the above began what is still an ongoing process. We’ve started and developed a plan to consult with, write to, and exert pressure on – with evidence of our safe practice – the NHS blood donor services. Please bear with us as replies are not speedy from these organisations!

Once this initial work is completed, and hopefully we will be successful, a revision to the policy we have will be written and will make its way before the Professional Standards and Regulatory Committee (PSRC) and then on to the GB for approval or amendment. The change will then be released to all of us as a policy or update to practice. So there’s great oversight and, yes, we take the time to get things done properly. This particular item is still on our list of ‘items to finish', since Covid dropped by for a visit.

We've also had to ensure completion of our Professional Standards Authority (PSA) reaccreditation, which was up for renewal at the very start of lockdown. This involved checking and finalising a raft of policies in a very short period of time, again making sure it was overseen by the PSRC and GB for openness, transparency, accuracy and content. An amazing amount of effort and work was put in by those BAcC staff not on furlough in order to submit it in the right format, and as you know, we successfully regained PSA accreditation.

From the start of lockdown it became clear that, as a profession, we were going to need good clear return-to-practice guidance for members, and it was a natural fit for the committee I chair to start producing them. The Register of Chinese Herbal Medicine (RCHM) had been in contact with the BAcC and it was decided that a collaborative project would benefit us all.

It's been a task and a half putting the Covid guidance together: a lot of time spent trawling through government web pages to condense the information down to a useable document; lots and lots of online discussions with the team to get the policy workable; and lots of online meetings and emails still going on, as government guidance changes. This was huge but rewarding work and the end product was a useable, workable support document for us all, put together by members for members.

Working collaboratively with the RCHM has been a fantastic new start to an opening up of discussions about our