Ian Appleyard Research and Policy Manager at the BAcC has recently published an article in the European Journal of Integrative Medicine (EUJIM) that takes an in depth look at the rationale behind The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Guideline for Osteoarthritis in over 16s: diagnosis and management (NG226). EuJIM is an international, peer reviewed journal.
The NICE guideline does not recommend acupuncture. This decision limits access to treatment to millions of patients in England and Wales. The guideline could, and should, have taken a more pragmatic approach.
The British Acupuncture Council (BAcC) along with the British Medical Acupuncture Society (BMAS) and the Acupuncture Association of Chartered Physiotherapists (AACP) provided feedback on the draft guideline in June 2022. However, unfortunately, NICE did not change their assessment, and acupuncture was not recommended in the final guideline. Subsequently, the three organisations BAcC, BMAS and AACP published a joint statement summarising the problems with NICE’s analysis of the clinical evidence.
If you would like read Ian’s article, now published in in the European Journal of Integrative Medicine, the article is freely available online until 27 July 2023, just click on the link below:
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