TCM in Canada

Federal government weighs into traditional Chinese medicine testing

Ontario’s requirement that practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine take their certification tests in English or French ignores “cultural sensitivities,” insists federal Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney.
In a letter to Ontario Health Minister Dr. Eric Hoskins, Kenney asked that candidates be allowed to write the exams in a Chinese language to ensure that individuals with extensive experience in the field are not excluded.
“Ontario’s TCM (traditional Chinese medicine) regulations require practitioners to pass two tests in order to secure full certification,” Kenney said. “Both tests are administered in English only with the meaning of key words and terms becoming lost in translation. Neither test is related to the practice of traditional Chinese medicine.”
Kenney wants Ontario to follow the lead of British Columbia which he says administers the tests in both official languages and in Chinese.
“The tests are also tailored to relate to the actual practice of traditional Chinese medicine,” Kenney says.
Shae Greenfield, a spokesperson for Hoskins, said in an e-mail Friday that TCM practitioners, like all regulated health professionals in the province, must be able to communicate in English or French.
“This ensures that they are able to work with other health care professionals in delivering care for people who need it,” Greenfield said. “TCM members may practice in any language they and their patients like — in fact, members are encouraged to communicate in the language that is most comfortable to the practitioner and patient — however records must be kept in English or in French to ensure other health-care providers can understand the information.”
The province has given “grandfathered” TCM practitioners who don’t speak either official language up to five years to develop their English or French skills.
Ontario was the second province in Canada to regulate TCM and currently has about 2,000 practitioners and acupuncturists, said Greenfield.

Source of the report is here.