Hospitals Pair Western, Chinese
Medicine in Trial
Three public hospitals will begin offering integrated Chinese-Western medicine services today.
Three public hospitals will begin offering integrated Chinese-Western medicine services today.
The Hospital Authority's Integrated
Chinese- Western Medicine Pilot Project will be a testing platform for doctors
of both types of medicine to cooperate in setting out a clinical framework for
hospital care.
Western medicine will be the main
form of treatment and Chinese medicine will play an assisting role. Chinese and
Western medicine doctors are encouraged to pair up when going into the sickroom
to observe the in-patients together.
The two doctors will write in the
same diary exchanging information before designing a treatment plan.
The patient will undergo a main
therapy given by the Western medicine doctor with Chinese medicine doctors
giving additional treatment, such as acupuncture, to relieve side effects and
strengthen results.
Cheung Wai-lun, director (cluster
services) of the Hospital Authority, said: "This is not a research program
on the medical value of Chinese-Western combined medicine. It is to try out the
system to run this kind of protocol across the entire public medical network in
future."
The first phase of the project,
which will last for six months, will be carried out among stroke patients at
Tung Wah Hospital in Sheung Wan, palliative care at Tuen Mun Hospital and acute
low back pain at Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital in Chai Wan. This
will be followed by an evaluation before the next phase begins in March.
Three Chinese medicine centers for
training and research will send out practitioners with at least four years'
experience to join the project under a senior supervisor.
The authority's chief of Chinese
medicine and integrative medicine, Eric Ziea Tat-chi, said he hopes the program
can provide training opportunities for Chinese medicine doctors as well.
The attending doctor will first
select eligible in- patients to take part, then invite them to join the
voluntary pilot program.
Each enrolled patient, on top of
their original medical cost as in-patients, will need to pay around HK$200 per
day for the Chinese medical consultation and treatment. Out-patients will pay
HK$120 per visit.
Out-patients may arrange for
follow-up treatment after discharge.
Patients are free to quit the
project if they do not feel well during treatment.
Source of the story is here.
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