China's top-tier hospitals to have TCM clinical services

BEIJING -- Clinical services featuring traditional Chinese medicine will be available in all of China's top-notch hospitals, an official said at a press conference Friday.

All of China's tertiary hospitals, which rank at the top of its three-tier grading system, will be configured with TCM clinics, and the setting up of TCM clinics in secondary hospitals will be supported, said Yan Huaguo, an official with the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

More efforts will be made to increase the number of TCM personnel and pharmacies in hospitals, intensify the synergy between TCM and Western-style medicine at hospital clinics to benefit more patients, and launch TCM training for more clinicians, Yan said.

Efforts will be made to develop a substantial number of therapies combining TCM and Western-style medicine for incurable and hard-to-cure diseases in the next five years, Yan added.