The plan of setting up 18 traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) outpatient clinics at selected hospitals or health centers around Hong Kong was urged to proceed recently. They are important for Hong Kong to become a regional TCM centre.

The plea came from Liu Liang, dean of the School of Chinese Medicine at Hong Kong Baptist University. The school has seen rapid expansion in recent years, with enrollment rising from 300 students in the inaugural year of 2000 to the current 1,400. There is an urgent need for TCM units to be set up not only to offer employment to graduates of Chinese medicine from local universities, but to also act as centers for continuous research. Liu revealed that a recent working trip to Melbourne, Australia inspired him towards such a vision, after Australian researchers had enquired about the possibility of sending their students to Hong Kong for TCM research.

Liu said for Hong Kong to take the lead in becoming an international TCM centre, there is a need for Chinese medicine to be more widely accepted by the local community before promoting it at an international level. And even the Americans and Europeans have been embracing TCM as part of alternative medicine in their own countries.

Hospital Authority's Director of Professional Services and Public Affairs Ko Wing-man told a Legislative Council health services panel meeting that only three new outpatient clinics will begin to provide research-oriented consultation services at the end of the year.