China to boost nonprofit TCM services

A clerk weighs traditional Chinese medicine in a Tongrentang pharmacy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in November, 2013. [Photo/China Daily]

BEIJING - China is planning more and better nonprofit hospitals specializing in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in a bid to rapidly develop the country's TCM industry.

A comprehensive reform will focus on State-owned TCM hospitals at county and city levels to strengthen their nonprofit nature while making them "better serve the people," according to a document jointly released Friday by the National Health and Family Planning Commission and the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

The document promised "greater support" for the development and innovation of the TCM industry, encouraging local TCM service providers to take the lead in exploring new management and operation systems catering to TCM.

It set the goal that each city and county should have at least one public TCM hospital, and these hospitals should have more business cooperation and personnel exchanges with the ones owned by other individuals and groups.

Health institutions specializing in medicine traditionally used by ethnic minority groups are also included in the reform and will receive equal backing.

Meanwhile, application procedures will be simplified and accelerated for individuals and social groups that want to set up their own TCM services, which have been playing a key role in treating people in rural regions.

According to the commission, all TCM hospitals will be supervised and their services evaluated. Those caught with wrongdoings, such as promoting TCM advertisements containing false or exaggerated content, will be named and shamed.