Beijing TCM Bodies Suggest Joint Projects With Malaysia

BEIJING, Nov 15 (Bernama) -- Two leading Beijing-based traditional medicine institutions are willing to have joint programmes with Malaysia which is planning to integrate western and traditional medicine in its national healthcare system.
"This is most welcome because it will jumpstart our efforts to have complementary traditional medicine in Malaysia and to have professional practitioners. We will definitely take this further," said Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek who is currently visiting China to find out more about the training and regulation of traditional medicine practitioners.
The two institutions are the Guanganmen Hospital which proposed a joint treatment clinic in Malaysia, and the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine which offered to have programmes with established universities in Malaysia to train teaching staff.
The minister visited the two institutions before proceeding to Shanghai where he would visit universities on Wednesday to assess the centres for Malaysians to take up traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).
Dr Chua said he was asked by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to look at facilities at the Guanganmen Hospital. Abdullah and the late Datin Seri Endon Mahmud visited the hospital a few years ago.
The hospital has been a leading TCM hospital for more than a decade. It has also been tasked by the World Health Organisation to draft clinical guidelines on the treatment of 27 common diseases using TCM.
Beijing University of Chinese Medicine president Zheng Shou Zeng said the university was interested in working with foreign universities to produce teachers who could then train local students.
Chua said Malaysia would enhance cooperation with China in TCM under a memorandum of understanding on health signed between the two countries when Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao was in Kuala Lumpur to attend a meeting with Asean member countries last year.
Malaysia plans to begin pilot projects to introduce Malay, Chinese and Indian traditional medicine as complementary healthcare at the Putrajaya Hospital, Kepala Batas Hospital and Sultan Ismail Hospital in Johor Baharu by the middle of next year.
Chua said for a start, acupuncture and reflexology would be made available at the Putrajaya and Kepala Batas hospitals while at the Sultan Ismail Hospital, traditional medicine would be used for oncology and health wellness programmes.