Consultation on this standard closed on April 22, 2022.
About the standard
The current Medical Services Requiring Accreditation Outside of Hospitals standard requires that physicians have approval to perform or supervise a diagnostic or treatment procedure and must obtain Registrar approval prior to performing acupuncture or hair transplantation. CPSA is the only regulator in Canada, other than the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan, with an approval process for acupuncture.
What’s changed
Rescind the Medical Services Requiring Accreditation Outside of Hospitals standard:
- Medical Services Requiring Accreditation Outside of Hospitals is addressed by the Non-Hospital Surgical Facilities Accreditation, making the standard of practice redundant.
- Remove the acupuncture approval requirement —acupuncture is no longer considered an alternative treatment and the risk to the public is minimal.
- Remove hair transplantation — hair transplantation is the only aesthetic procedure that currently requires approval.
Your opinion matters
Changes to CPSA’s Standards of Practice impact your day-to-day practice. Your input is vital to ensuring the standards strike an appropriate balance between serving patient needs and setting reasonable expectations for your medical practice.
This consultation closed on April 22, 2022. Once amendments are finalized and approved by CPSA Council, physicians will be notified and made aware of any new expectations via The Messenger newsletter.
We respect your privacy
All feedback is subject to CPSA’s Privacy Statement. CPSA reviews all comments before publication to ensure there is no offensive language, personal attacks or unsubstantiated allegations.
CPSA members, partner organizations, other health care professionals and Albertans were invited to provide feedback from March 22 to April 22, 2022. CPSA Council will consider non-nominal feedback when approving final amendments to the standard this fall.
Other feedback on this consultation
i am accupuncture accredited. i disagree with the removal proposition, accupuncture knowledge and skill should be demonstrated and tested before being allowed to be practiced just like every other facet of medicine, otherwise it will be practiced poorly and progress back to quackery by medical doctors just taking a couple weekend course and pretend to be doing accupuncture.....i dont take a weekend course for delivering babies and advertise myself to be a midwife or obstetrician......
regards dr peter Leung
Dear CPSA,
My knowledge about the nature and length of training required to become a specialist in acupuncture in insufficient. I suggest to gather this opinion specifically from our colleagues who are specialized in acupuncture and who have years of solid experience. They might have the best opinion about whether or not acupuncture should be subjected to the CPSA regulation, what the standards of training should be.
This seems to be a reasonable change and appropriate, and I support this change. A standard that provides no additional benefit, or that is no longer relevant is appropriate to be rescinded. Of note, I understand the concern from Dr. Leung in the feedback provided on this page, but I would submit that if acupuncture is no longer "alternative therapy" then it is governed by our other standards of practice applicable to how we practice medicine in all we do. Therefore appropriate training and performance would be expected/required for it to be incorporated into one's practice in the same way that we require appropriate training for anything else that is part of our practice. Poor practice/quackery would be no more welcome or condoned in acupuncture than in any other medical act/procedure.
Medical services requiring accreditation outside the Hospitals.
This is an appropriate decision by all means. I wonder if a clinic facility is licensed as Alternative Medicine is to undertake a procedure, for example acupuncture and a CPSA registered physician is associated with that clinic / facility?
What about weight reduction methods like liposuction or newer methods using machines?