Virginia Regulatory Town Hall
Agency
Department of Health Professions
 
Board
Board of Physical Therapy
 
chapter
Regulations Governing the Practice of Physical Therapy [18 VAC 112 ‑ 20]
Action Practice of dry needling
Stage NOIRA
Comment Period Ended on 12/30/2015
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12/27/15  2:09 pm
Commenter: Jianfeng Zheng,Lac

No to PT dry needling
 

Say no to dry neddling by phisical theropist without acupuncture license.

Dear Board of Physical Therapy,

I am a licensed acupuncturist and am writing to object to the intent to draft "dry needling" regulations. I believe the regulations present a serious threat to public health and would authorize physical therapists to engage in acts that are clearly outside the scope of practice for physical therapy that has been adopted by the Virginia General Assembly.I encourage you not to draft regulations because:

1. 54 hours of training is a completely inadequate level of training to qualify a physical therapist to safely insert acupuncture needles into patients and the regulations therefore are a serious threat to public safety;

2. Dry needling constitutes the practice of acupuncture under Virginia law and there is no basis for allowing physical therapists to practice acupuncture with only a small percentage of the training required for acupuncturists and even medical doctors;

3. The dry needling rules are illegal, because they would allow physical therapists to engage in acts that are outside the legal scope of practice for physical therapy as defined by Virginia's General Assembly. There is nothing to support that the General Assembly ever intended to allow physical therapists to insert acupuncture needles into patients absent the same level of training required for licensed acupuncturists.

4.Those who now make trickery to call dry needle acupuncture modified, only accept training in a very short time is involved in skin puncture of invasive medical interventions (invasive medical intervention, resulting in patients at high risk of infection. The reason why they are trying to do the needle and acupuncture therapy, is to avoid the law to engage in the treatment of acupuncture therapy, and put the patient's safety in their interests, it is a clear violation of medical ethics.

Sincerely,

Mike Zeng. Lac

 

CommentID: 47388