Regulatory Meetings

The Acupuncture Society’s regulatory and promotional officer’s are Amanda Shayle, Paul Robin, Kirsten Dhar and Dragomir Lubomirov

List of meeting’s attended by the Acupuncture Society

Acupuncture Stakeholder Group (ASG)

End 2007 through to present with 4 meetings a year have been attended by Amanda.  Paul Robin has also attended many of these.  This group originally fed into the working group towards statutory regulation under the HPC.  The group continues to meet and is exploring areas such as best practice, research and education for the continued development of the acupuncture profession.

Microsystems Acupuncture Regulatory Working Group MARWG

This group was set up by Paul Blacker and has always been attended by Amanda Shayle and Dragomir Lubomirov.  Its role was to commence a process of self regulation for auricular and other microsystem therapies that fell outside of the statutory process.
The CNHC have, after 18 months of work by this group opened the Register for self regulation.  Amanda Shayle has been appointed a member of the Profession Specific Board (PSB).

 

 

March 2007 NoCLoR Annual conference

attended by Amanda by invitation.

 

22 October 2007 – 23 October 2007 Assessing Complementary Practice

Building consensus on appropriate research methods
Venue: King’s Fund, Two-day conference , London

Chairs Professor Dame Carol Black | Chairman, Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and National Director for Health and Work, Department of Work and Pensions, Sir Cyril Chantler | Chair, King’s Fund , Niall Dickson | Chief Executive, King’s Fund, Kim Lavely | Chief Executive, The Prince’s Foundation for Integrated Health

 

October 2007 CAM research conference

Organised in collaboration with North Central London Research Consortium (NoCLoR) by Amanda Shayle and Kirsten Dhar.
Chaired by Boo Armstrong, Keynote lecture Prof. Jane Plant CBE on nutrition, other speakers included Keith Hunt, Massage therapy achievements at Royal Free Hospital.  Amanda Shayle presented Acupuncture in the Community – discussing issues with commissioning, patient choice and data from Gateway clinic.

 

1st December 2007 4th Annual conference of The Society of Auricular Acupuncturists

Speakers included: Paul Evans, Acupuncture in Outreach for Homeless, David Balen on Issues affecting practitioner on insurance and practice management. Annual reassessments.

 

Also during 2007 to 2008

GetWell UK and Campaign to introduce complementary medicine as support treatments to Camden  GP practices

Supported by a local entrepreneur, Getwell Uk, based in Camden, ran a campaign to generate the support of local General Practitioners to commission acupuncture and other therapies to benefit the low income groups in Camden.  Headed by Boo Armstrong, also responsible for the co-ordination of the successful NHS Northern Ireland CAM study, this group included a wide range of local practitioners across many disciplines.   Amanda attended all the meetings and welcomed Dragomir Lubomirov and Kirsten Dhar’s support in distributing the questionnaire packs to all the GP practices in Camden borough

 

Amanda also represented acupuncture in CAMPAIGN, another promotional endeavour supported by the Foundation for Integrated Health.  This involved meeting other professional associations at the Foundation headquarters and a number of conference calls.
Networking with other professional associations has forged valuable links and is helpful, for example when dealing with advertising standards issues.  These links have now been maintained by her involvement with the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council, CNHC.

 

1 May 2008 NoCLoR (North Central London Research Consortium) Annual Conference, London

Innovation into practice presentations, Research posters
High Profile speakers on healthcare policy included Nigel Edwards, Director of Policy, NHS Confederation, Chris Heginbotham, Professor of Mental Health Policy and Management, University of Central Lancasaire

 

30 June, 1st July 2008, 2008 Uk National Smoking Cessation Conference, Birmingham

Debate: This house believes that hypnotherapy and acupuncture should be treatments provided by NHS smoking services.

Amanda Shayle and Maggie Chapman(Fellow of British Soc of Clinical Hypnosis) against Paul Aveyard, NIHR Career Scientist University of Birmingham, Darcy Brown Health improvement Lead for Tobacco Control and Smoking Cessation
Result : Unanimous vote for research as commissioning dependant on evidence base.

600 delegates from all areas of NHS.Full conference exploring all areas of smoking cessation

 

 

6 & 7 September 2008, British Conference of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine
Royal Holloway, Egham.

Amanda attended both days as a delegate.

 

 

21st November 2008 5th Annual Conference of The Society of Auricular Acupuncturists

Amanda Shayle presented an introduction of how research, in the light of current developments, can work for integrated medicine using auricular acupuncture.
Kirsten Dhar presented how auricular acupuncture works on a cellular level
Other speakers included Sorath Partnership, Paul Blacker, Steven Wilson and Christine Day.
Annual reassessments.

 

Training received by NoCLoR

Concerned with NHS policy, training and good clinical practice standards.
Understanding the following skills, particularly in relation to standards set within the NHS are valuable in setting standards within our own profession and also to understand the challenges we face to meet these guidelines in clinical and research practice.

• Clinical ethics and practice in the research environment
• Running a Focus Group
• Presentation skills
• How to write and publish a medical research paper.
• Intellectual Property and bringing ideas into a reality

 

Conferences/seminars attended concerned with NHS Governance and standards

Making Commissioning Work
Collaboration to deliver patient outcomes
06 July 2011, The Barbican, London

The Service & Delivery Organisation SDO Network (2009)
Seminar on best practice for research within the NHS

Conference on new audit and governance requirements within the NHS (2009)

27 November 2009
6th Annual conference, The College of Auricular Acupuncture

Presentations by CNHC, Alpha Music, Sorath Partnership, Adam Hellinger, Delta Consultancy.  Annual reassessments.

 

11th September 2010 Mapping The Terrain
17th meeting of the Acupuncture Stakeholder Group (ASG)

Royal Holloway University of London.  Special meeting to discuss standards of education and training in Acupuncture.

 

ONGOING ACTIVITIES:

Amanda, with Paul Robin continue to attend the ASG meetings which appears, due to lack of statutory regulation, to be evolving into an exciting forum whereby all UK acupuncture is to be represented and important decisions made for the future of the profession.

Amanda and Dragomir Lubomirov continue to attend meetings with The Microsystem Acupuncture Working Group, which has already achieved voluntary self regulation of microsystems acupuncture with the CNHC.