More hospitals get traditional medicine units

Star: KUALA LUMPUR: Three more government hospitals will be offering traditional complementary medicine (TCM) next year.
Terengganu, Sabah and Sarawak will house one TCM unit each, in addition to the current ones in Hospital Putrajaya, Hospital Kepala Batas in Penang and Hospital Sultan Ismail in Johor.
Health Minister Datuk Liow Tiong Lai said this was due to the good response received at the first three hospitals.
“In Putrajaya, you need to make an appointment three months in advance for TCM service. In Kepala Batas, more than 4,000 patients had been treated since January,” he said.
Liow said seven professional bodies are currently helping regulate TCM practitioners as the Health Ministry is in the midst of drafting the Traditional and Complementary Healthcare Practices Act.
There are 7,578 local TCM practitioners registered under the seven bodies.
The public can contact these bodies to ensure that their TCM practitioners are not bogus practitioners, Liow said.
The seven bodies are the Chinese Physician’s Association of Malaysia, Federation of Chinese Physicians and Medicine Dealers Associations of Malaysia, Federation of Chinese Physicians and Acupuncturists of Malaysia, Persekutuan Perubatan Tradisional Melayu, Pertubuhan Perubatan Tradisional India Malaysia, Majlis Perubatan Homeopathy Malaysia and Malaysian Society for Complementary Therapies.
The Traditional and Complementary Healthcare Practices Act is aimed at regulating TCM practitioners by validating their qualifications against set standards, compulsory registration and the issuance of practising certificates.
While waiting for the Act to be debated in Parliament, which could be as soon as next year, Liow said the ministry is launching a voluntary registration scheme next month.
“TCM practitioners can voluntarily register themselves online via the e-Pengamal scheme; when the Act is passed, registration will become compulsory,” he said after launching the Golden Horses Health Sanctuary-TCM Wellness.