INCORPORATING TCM IN MEDICAL ESTABLISHMENTS
Apart from being used as preventive healthcare, there is a case to be made for TCM to be incorporated in medical establishments such as step-down care, polyclinics and hospitals.
Acupuncture services are already offered at several hospitals. For example, Sengkang General Hospital’s acupuncture service provides treatment for mainly chronic pain patients when conventional treatment is either contraindicated or unable to provide desired pain relief.
The National University Hospital has an acupuncture clinic, while Singapore General Hospital’s Pain Management Centre offers acupuncture as an alternative treatment, and Tan Tock Seng Hospital has a Complementary Integrative Medicine Clinic that offers acupuncture, cupping and TCM medicinal herbs. Khoo Tech Puat Hospital also offers acupuncture and cupping.
More can be done in this area.
MANY HURDLES
There are many hurdles for TCM to gain more recognition in a public healthcare arena dominated by Western medicine.
First, evidence-based medicine must be used to prove the efficacy of TCM. In this area, the MOH in 2014 launched a TCM Research Grant. One of its objectives is to assist policymakers by providing clinically proven treatments to serve the healthcare needs of the public.
In the area of TCM research, progress has been made over the last decades locally and overseas, particularly in China. But much of this research might have gone unnoticed due to the use of non-Western or non-English means of publication.
Hence, it may be meaningful to conduct regular systematic review on all research literature to assess the increasing availability of evidence over time. This could provide useful information to facilitate policymakers in giving recognition to TCM in tandem with the production of efficacy evidence.
