Traditional Chinese medicine has reached a milestone in its development in Hong Kong through its wide and successful application in treating patients during the fifth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Oswald Chan reports from Hong Kong.
If COVID-19 has made the world more health conscious, it has even wider significance for Hong Kong — the importance and relevance of traditional Chinese medicine, which originated in ancient times, has never been greater.
Medical experts are convinced that TCM has proved to be potent in the fight against the coronavirus and should be broadly used in the special administrative region’s medical stream.
The death toll from the fifth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic — at more than 9,170, with over 1.2 million reported cases by the latest count — is unprecedented for Hong Kong in any public health crisis in its history. The fifth wave of the outbreak in the first three months of this year pushed the city’s public healthcare system to the brink, with patients forced to sleep on beds outside hospitals and thousands of others waiting for days to be admitted to isolation facilities.
At the request of the HKSAR government, the central government and the Guangdong provincial government rushed medical support teams to the SAR to help the city ride out the crisis, including almost 400 healthcare professionals from different disciplines at 25 medical institutions on the Chinese mainland.
The mainland teams worked closely with their Hong Kong counterparts from the Hospital Authority in assessing the condition of patients, as well as formulating and providing integrated Chinese and Western medical treatment. More than 1,200 COVID-19 patients recovered under their care and were discharged.
Both sides also exchanged experiences in clinical care, the application of Chinese and Western medicine and rehabilitation treatment, laying a solid foundation for deepening medical cooperation between Hong Kong and the mainland.
“Hong Kong should bring TCM practitioners into its medical system to show the role TCM deserves in protecting public health,” said Tong Xiaolin, who led a team of mainland Chinese medicine experts to the SAR in March. “TCM’s role should not be confined to just emergency medical cases. It should be extensively applied in routine medical cases.”
Tong led a 7-member team of TCM experts to exchange views with local TCM practitioners on how to leverage TCM in cutting down COVID-19-related infections, severe cases and deaths. “The SAR authorities should eliminate restrictions in policy and technical aspects in order to set up long-term and effective mechanisms,” he said.
To implement the ultimate goal of realizing Hong Kong’s “three reductions” — in COVID-19 infections, severe cases and the mortality rate — he said the goal should be accompanied by the principle of “three easies”— easy to learn, easy to practice and easy to acquire. The SAR government should also educate local residents on how to choose and take TCM appropriately.
Holistic approach
Tong, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and head researcher of the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, explained that applying TCM in Hong Kong in COVID-19 prevention aspects is not extensive enough. In the rehabilitation process, TCM has produced good results. Therefore, the next step should be to promote the application of Chinese medicine in the whole process of COVID-19 treatment.
“The trend is combining TCM with Western medicines. TCM focuses on the holistic regulation of the body, while Western medicine is more concerned with the results of treatment,” Tong noted. He hoped Hong Kong hospitals will consider applying acupuncture as it has been proven that it can relieve the headaches, insomnia and loss of appetite associated with COVID-19 patients’ rehabilitation process.
“The pandemic has made people more aware of the efficacy of TCM in preventing infectious diseases,” said Leung Ping-chung, director of the Centre for Clinical Trials on Chinese Medicine at The Chinese University of Hong Kong’s Institute of Chinese Medicine.
The Hospital Authority in April launched the Special Chinese Medicine Out-patient Program to provide a maximum of 10 free-of-charge sessions of TCM general consultation outpatient rehabilitation services to eligible COVID-19 infected patients. As of May 30, over 30,500 recovered patients had joined the program and over 93,900 consultations had been conducted.
In future, the TCM sector will strive to raise the medical industry’s technology standards, cultivate TCM professionals, and foster regional collaboration with TCM practitioners in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, said Douglas So Cheung-tak, advisory committee chairman of the Chinese Medicine Development Fund.
The CMDF, he said, can explore some forward-looking and experimental TCM projects, such as facilitating TCM diagnosis with technologies. “For example, can local residents make electronic bookings with TCM practitioners for consultation? How can TCM clinics upgrade their websites? How can patients’ pulse information be uploaded on mobile phones to enable TCM practitioners to give a more accurate diagnosis?”
In the 2018-19 Budget, the HKSAR government set aside HK$500 million ($64.1 million) to set up the CMDF, which is supervised by the Food and Health Bureau. The fund was put to use in June 2019. As of March 31, the CMDF’s advisory committee had approved some 4,200 applications, amounting to more than HK$93 million. More than HK$400 million remains unallocated.
The applications approved involve more than 10 mega TCM projects in areas like training practitioners, improving clinic facilities, refining logistics warehouse functions, facilitating registration, powering education, setting up an information platform and conducting clinical research to benefit the entire value chain of the local industry.
Deeper collaboration
“The advisory committee hopes to complete the CMDF’s medium-term review report this year. We are listening to the voices of stakeholders in the TCM business to gauge their opinions on how the CMDF can further raise the industry’s standards,” So told China Daily.
Besides technology, the CMDF will consider TCM projects related to Hong Kong’s first Chinese Medicine Hospital, which is expected to begin operations in phases from mid-2025. The projects involve cultivating TCM professionals required by the CMH and complementing research work related to the hospital’s construction.
The next focus area will be on development opportunities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. “How can the CMDF promote cooperation between TCM practitioners in Hong Kong and those in (other cities of) the Greater Bay Area in conducting cross-border TCM clinical research? How can the fund advance development opportunities for the TCM sector in the region so that TCM practitioners on both sides of the border can learn from each other?” said So.
Tommy Li Ying-sang, chairman of the Federation of the Hong Kong Chinese Medicine Practitioners and Chinese Medicines Traders Association, said the problem is that TCM, which includes acupuncture, herbal therapy and massage, is not widely recognized for use in Hong Kong’s public healthcare system. “If TCM is widely recognized in our public healthcare system, it would benefit patients, TCM practitioners and the industry’s development. The SAR government should consider building up TCM reserves, and have a contingency plan to approve some non-registered TCM for emergency use in Hong Kong,” he said.
“The fifth wave of COVID-19 has offered a good opportunity for TCM practitioners to join in the anti-pandemic fight,” Kenlay Wong Kong-hui, Hong Kong Chinese Medicine Industry Association executive president, told China Daily. “We expect to see deeper collaboration between TCM practitioners and doctors in the public health system. TCM practitioners will play a more important role in future.”
“We think TCM practitioners’ participation will help to reduce the pressures on and deficiencies in the local medical-care system,” said Chan Wing-kwong, president of the Hong Kong Registered Chinese Medicine Practitioners Association.
Contact the writer at oswald@chinadailyhk.com