Chua seeks China skills

Star: BEIJING: Malaysia, which plans to use traditional medicine as complementary healthcare in three government hospitals next year, is seeking help from China to train and regulate Chinese medicine practitioners.
The Health Ministry wants to set clear international standards to ensure that only qualified practitioners can provide such services.
By the middle of next year, pilot projects will take off at the Putrajaya Hospital, the Kepala Batas Hospital and the Sultan Ismail Hospital in Johor Baru, when they start practising traditional medicine.
The service would start with acupuncture, massages and reflexology, general wellness and a programme to offset the side effects of chemotherapy for cancer patients.
Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek, now visiting China, said the practice of traditional medicine in China had become more scientific and clinical and no more based on hearsay.
They, however, depended on Western methods for diagnosis and in dealing with acute cases, he said here yesterday.
Dr Chua met Chinese counterpart Gao Qiang and visited the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine and the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences.
The minister visited several universities here, in Shanghai and Nanjing to scout for suitable training centres for Malaysian doctors to take up traditional Chinese medicine.
Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Ismail Merican and Higher Education Ministry officials accompanied him.
“We must make it clear that the use of traditional medicine is complementary.
“It is not an alternative medicine. Patients must be referred by doctors first,” said Dr Chua, adding that Malay, Chinese and Indian traditional medicine would be integrated into the national healthcare system.
The Traditional and Complementary Medicine Act is being drafted and will be tabled in Parliament next year.
Malaysia has some 10,000 traditional medicine practitioners with more than half involved in traditional Chinese medicine.