The BAcC fully supports NICE's decision that acupuncture be made available on the NHS for persistent non-specific low back pain.

The British Acupuncture Council, the UK’s largest professional body for the practice of acupuncture, fully supports NICE’s (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) decision that acupuncture be made available on the NHS for chronic lower back pain.

Traditional acupuncture has been used for over 2,000 years to alleviate back pain and British Acupuncture Council members have for many many years been successfully treating patients for this condition either in private practice or working within the NHS. In effect, therefore, these new guidelines are a rubber stamp of the positive work already being undertaken as well as an endorsement of the wealth of research evidence now available in this area.

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Millions of people who suffer from low back pain are to be given the right to ask for acupuncture on the NHS.

GPs will be told to offer their patients the traditional Chinese practice, as well as other treatments like osteopathy and chiropracty, as an alternative to conventional remedies like exercise….

Although some individual GPs currently refer patients for complementary treatments, the recommendation constitutes the first time the rationing body has encouraged its use. Its draft guidance says anyone whose pain persists for more than six weeks should be given a choice of several treatments, because the evidence about which works best is so uncertain…

Paul Robin, chairman of the Acupuncture Society, a professional body representing practitioners, said the therapy worked “fantastically well” in relieving back pain.

Read the full article and some of the controversy involved on the Telegraph website - NHS to promote acupuncture for back pain.