Healthcare service based on TCM set to start

A healthcare service based on traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), will soon be established, according to the nation's top TCM authority.

Based on trials at more than 170 TCM institutions, guidelines, rules and standards will be formulated for the service, said Wang Lian, spokesman of the State Administration of TCM at a press conference on Tuesday.

The project, initiated in 2007, will help standardize a rising number of TCM services across the country to prevent fraud, Wang said.

"Next, the department of disease prevention and health preservation will soon open, under the project, at TCM hospitals across the nation," he said.

Xu Zhiren, director of the medical affairs department of the administration, said the new department would integrate examination centers at hospitals to give advice regarding TCM drugs or techniques.

Favorable health insurance policies should be introduced to help the new service, he said.

To improve the service, more than 500 community clinics will be selected to perform TCM, he said.

Starting this year, TCM disease prevention and health preservation services have been added to the list of national basic public health services, which are subsidized by the government.

Specifically, by the end of 2013, 36 million people aged 65 or older, and 28 million children, younger than three years, will be given free TCM consultations and advice.