Govt hospitals in three states to use complementary treatment

Star: KUCHING: Treatment using traditional and complementary medicine will be available at government hospitals in Sabah, Sarawak and Terengganu soon.
This follows the Health Ministry’s decision to extend the integrative medicine programme to the three states.
The ministry’s Traditional and Complementary Medicine division senior officer Jaafar Lassa said the extension to one hospital each in the three states was due to an overwhelming response to the programme that was launched three years ago.
“There is sufficient evidence to suggest that traditional and complementary medicine is safe, and able to benefit patients,” he said at the two-day inaugural Malaysia International Medicine Congress which ended, here, yesterday.
“Such medicine has long had a profound impact on human medical history.”
More than 500 local and foreign participants attended the event organised by the Chung Hua Tradi-tional Chinese Medicine Study and Research Society of Malaysia.
Traditional and complementary medicine treatment is now available at the Kepala Batas Hospital in Butterworth, Penang, Johor’s Sultan Ismail Hospital and the Putrajaya Hospital.
Jaafar said the traditional and complementary medicine field should be given recognition and support to enable it to develop and expand, and offer holistic therapy.
He said the ministry had drafted a list of standards and criteria to promote education and training in the field.