RM1.5 Million As Initial Fund For TCM Pilot Projects

KUALA LUMPUR, April 26 (Bernama) -- A sum of RM1.5 million will be allocated to the Health Ministry as an initial fund to start off a traditional and complementary medicine (TCM) pilot programme at three government hospitals.
The ministry's Parliamentary Secretary Datuk Lee Kah Choon said the fund would come under the Ninth Malaysia Plan (9MP)'s coffers for the programme at Kepala Batas (Penang), Putrajaya and Sultanah Aminah (Johor) hospitals.
"This amount will be used for further research and survey on the system to be implemented for this programme," he told reporters after officiating the 11th Southeast Asia Healthcare Show 2006 here, Wednesday.
Yesterday, he announced in Johor Baharu that the Cabinet had agreed to start off the TCM pilot projects with the intention of providing a holistic treatment approach in the country's healthcare system.
The projects would adopt a concept where patients were given the option of either undergoing western or traditional treatment at the selected government hospitals.
However, Lee could not specify the date for the pilot projects to take off as the TCM division set up under the ministry was still determining the standards and suitability of traditional medical practitioners to be engaged.
"Hopefully, we want the practitioners to be home grown but maybe we will invite experts with vast experiences in their own countries to come in to train and share their knowledge with us," he added.
Lee said traditional treatment had great potential to be developed in the country based on the estimated annual revenue of RM4.5 billion said to have been generated from the service.
"We hope that this revenue could increase in the years to come," he said, adding that the World Health Organisation (WHO)'s statistics had also shown that 70 per cent of the population in developing countries and 50 per cent in developed countries used traditional treatment.