The government was urged yesterday to proceed with the original plan of setting up of 18 traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) outpatient clinics at selected hospitals or health centres around Hong Kong, as 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.

Liu told an audience of businessman at a luncheon organized by the Lion's Club yesterday that 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.

"Even the Americans and Europeans have been embracing TCM as part of alternative medicine in their own countries," he said, adding that he wondered why the Hospital Authority in Hong Kong was so slow in incorporating Chinese medicine in public medical services.

Liu said 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 centres for continuous research.

Liu's remarks fly in the face of the Hospital Authority's statement on Monday that the setting up of the 18 clinics was not a fixed goal, implying that progress would not be fast.

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

Liu added that in the wake of the signing of the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement between Hong Kong and the mainland, the territory should take the lead in examining the possibility of working with Macao and mainland cities in the Pearl River Delta region to establish a regional TCM centre.

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.

From ChinaDaily.com.cn