Accidents do happen! A discussion of Acupuncture incident and adverse event reporting in New Zealand.

ACUPUNCTURE; ADVERSE health care events; WORLD Health Organization; SELF-report inventories; PUBLIC health

Acupuncture is commonly presented in the literature as a safe and low risk therapy. However without a comprehensive reporting scheme for accidents and adverse events there are concerns about relying on self-reporting mechanisms. Key issues identified within reporting are the potential for significant under reporting and the high rate of adverse events due to professional negligence. Additionally, a proportion of reporting is not traditional acupuncture, often medical acupuncture or dry needling, and is not performed by correctly trained professionals with the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended 500 hours of clinical training specific to acupuncture. This article argues that acupuncture is only safe in the hands of appropriately trained professionals, and these professionals must ensure high standards of practice and continual training and review. Further points of discussion are the significant concerns with the portrayal of 'acupuncture' and 'acupuncturist' in the literature. To emphasise this argument a snapshot on reporting over a five year timeframe within New Zealand is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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