Nurses performing acupuncture under Schedule 3 - Your thoughts

The ABVA council has maintained the view that nurses performing acupuncture under Schedule 3 is an unworkable arrangement and was a bad decision taken by the RCVS Standards Committee. This decision was made without the RCVS having taken any advice from a veterinary acupuncture association or acupuncturist. The ABVA feels that animal acupuncture is a non standardized procedure (restricted under the Veterinary Surgeons Act) that requires continuous assessment of needle responses as part of the decision making to progressing with other needling. The ABVA has restricted its membership and training courses to qualified veterinary surgeons, but the Council is considering the appropriate roles of veterinary nurses and the potential for a course for nurses assisting in vet acupuncture while maintaining it is inappropriate for nurses to carry out the treatment. The RCVS is holding a Question Time in Winchester this Thursday evening and one topic for discussion is Schedule 3 for nurses which I plan to attend (following on from a meeting we had earlier this year with them). Any views from members are welcomed (that I can pass on at the meeting). Regards, Dietrich G von Schweinitz