Founding a profession

BAcC luminaries at the dawn of UK acupuncture

Charles Buck

BAcC Fellow: Cheshire

OK, there were traces before, but the seeds of UK acupuncture really germinated in the 1970s, fed and watered by the twin forces of science and hippy-dom. Even then, science had an inkling of something interesting going on. Starting a uni research project in 1976 I asked my supervisor what was the most interesting new horizon in neurophysiology – ‘Oh, acupuncture, definitely!’ he said.

This sparked my interest but also seemed a very weird thing for a med school professor to say at that time, until I found out it was the search to explain ‘the acupuncture effect’ that fuelled the discovery of endorphins. Scientists got their research grants, but it was us hairy types with our fascination for all things eastern who decided to actually learn how to do it. As you might expect, gurus appeared to meet the demand, notably Jack Worsley, Dick van Buren, Royston Low, and Sidney Rose-Neil, plus a few more.

These pioneers founded colleges and taught their own personal interpretations of the sparse information that could be gleaned at the time. Beholden to no one, they guessed at how a medical education should happen, what a curriculum might contain and how assessment happens. They set up somewhat ad hoc registers to recognise their own graduates and so, by 1984 we ended up with five rival fiefdoms each quietly disparaging the others for being not quite good enough.

The new generation then thought, Dammit – we are a healthcare profession, not medical hobbyists, we deserve state in medical recognition – and so they knocked The challenge education. They helped us create at the doors of Whitehall. was to create a processes so educationally Whitehall said two things. One, squeaky-clean correct that when the universities that we had to unite into a single professional began to offer acupuncture organisation because they did body with degrees, they recognised the not want to talk to a rabble, and two, appropriate quality of the BAAB and duly we needed to selfregulate properly, standards sought to have them validate to look more like their courses. an actual medical Even today, three profession and decades after less like a bunch of the BAAB was mavericks. founded, I believe this

Remarkable diplomacy achievement has not been by the BAcC founders matched anywhere else in allowed us to Europe. BAcC members can today overcome past display genuine acupuncture degree rancour and unite certificates on their clinic walls because together – first as of the work of enlightened BAcC heroes the Council for Acupuncture and of the past. Without the professional then in 1995 as the BAcC. We began to self-discipline they gave us we default mature into a real profession, ideally to a race-to-the-bottom where maverick positioned to have state recognition. colleges compete for a limited student

The remaining challenge was to create market, short-changing students and a squeaky-clean professional body with the public by offering ever cheaper and appropriate standards. An important inadequate short courses. part involved defining and maintaining the educational requirements for entry into the profession, and to do this an accreditation board was created to regulate the quality of professional UK acupuncture training. The genius of those who founded the British Acupuncture Accreditation Board (BAAB) was to bring in outside experts

in medical education. They helped us create processes so educationally correct that when the universities began to offer acupuncture degrees, they recognised the quality of the BAAB and duly sought to have them validate their courses.

Even today, three decades after the BAAB was founded, I believe this achievement has not been matched anywhere else in

Europe. BAcC members can today display genuine acupuncture degree certificates on their clinic walls because of the work of enlightened BAcC heroes of the past. Without the professional self-discipline they gave us we default to a race-to-the-bottom where maverick colleges compete for a limited student market, short-changing students and the public by offering ever cheaper and inadequate short courses.