Did you know that registered TCM practitioners are not allowed to.....
They are not allowed to give any western medicine. Not even the Panadol that you can buy off the shelf at 7-eleven! If they are caught doing so they can be censured.
That also means that TCM practitioners cannot give any injections also.
I used to wonder why TCM practitioners sent their patients to western doctors to get blood tests done, eg Blood cholesterol levels etc. Why didn't they just do it themselves?
Well I guess for one TCM practitioners are not trained in phlebotomy and are probably not allowed to do such "western medical" procedures and investigations either.
But it is necessary to monitor the results of treatments and confirm that there is improvement for the patient.
My outlook of this has now changed ever since I started attending lectures at Singapore TCM College. I think western doctors and TCM practitioners should communicate more. But before we can have meaningful communication we must be able to understand the language we both speak.
TCM practitioners do study western medical school subjects eg pharmacology, physiology etc. So they can understand quite a bit of what we talk about.
On the other hand, I think 99% of western doctors have no proper understanding of Yin and Yang, Qi, Blood, Body Fluid, 5 Elements, Meridians, Wind, Cold, Heat, Dampness, Dryness, Fire etc.
In many ways, whether each school of healing decides to learn about other schools of healing begins with acknowledgement and recognition. And that step is highly political.
We can see that it has happened in Germany. Prince Charles wants to do it in UK, but is having lots of protests from the allopathic western doctors.
Will it happen in Singapore? It remains to be seen. But at the moment the TCM practitioners have taken the first proactive step by opening a course for us Western doctors to learn their craft. And I think we owe them a debt of gratitude.
posted by Dr Oz bloke @ 7:49 PM
13 Comments:
Highly qualified TCM practitioners with recognized credentials should also be allowed to train in western medicine in our hospitals starting from the rudiments. Why, because we are basically an asian society and asian society should cherish asian practices and knowledge.
Upon successful completion they should be given a diploma same as what you'll get when you're done with the yin and the yang.
Problem is, I still see a lot of half past six TCM practitioners hawking snake oil around the island.
All these fugging quacks should be relocated to some backlanes in geylang.
Our lecturer did talk on this too.
The association has brought this up to MOH too. They had a debate when they started the TCM register. The question was whether to only accept practitioners who had passed the MOH exam and require all of them to take the exam.
Many older TCM physicians were unhappy and pleaded with MOH. They said things like they are old, not educated, cannot read or write well, but have experience in treating patients, in fact some were better than those who had passed the exams. They also pleaded saying that MOH would be taking away their rice bowl etc.
So MOH relented and said ok those who have been in practice for a certain number of years would be given the license. But it cannot be passed down the generations. :wink:
MOH has told everyone concerned to be patient. It takes time. For example another issue at the moment is that any person can step into a Chinese Herbal medicine shop and buy any TCM medicine. Even those labelled "Only for TCM practitioner's use" can be bought by anyone.
TCM practitioners feel this is actually dangerous for people. But there is no law to control the sale of TCM drugs at the moment. The reason is apparently that there are not enough TCM pharmacists trained. There are some courses right now in the Polytechnics from what I gather.
So the axiom at the moment is "Be patient"
Everything begins with the first steps.
Strangely, there are much more "practitioners" eg "Qigong masters", "Chinese practitioners" that are NOT registered with MOH and they are the ones making all sorts of grand claims of being able to cure cancer etc etc. MOH cannot persecute these people because they are not registered. Registered practitioners do not make these claims because they will be punished.
So your "fugging quacks" are actually not endorsed by any organization. But the weird thing is that patients continue to go to these people. Perhaps they do not know better and do not know how to tell who is registered and who is not.
Well that's Singapore for you at the moment.
"They said things like they are old, not educated, cannot read or write well,"
Are you putting me on? Cannot even read and write and wants to treat patients? Do the ignoramus have a death wish? All these fellas should be barred from practising any form of medicine, eastern or otherwise.
"So MOH relented and said ok those who have been in practice for a certain number of years would be given the license. But it cannot be passed down the generations."
These buggers are putting our lives at stake. The short ass should look into the matter thoroughly and come up with a system to identify the cons who cannot read or write. One way is to have a label A to C like what they have for eating establishments. C, the lowest grade means the guy has no qualifications, cannot read or write but can tell the herbs from just smelling alone. A is for guys like you. Trained in western and eastern medicine and properly accredited but cannot tell a mushroom from a linzhi.
Like I said, a fool is born in Singapore every minute of 24/7.
What the fugs.
yeah they did mention they suggested different classes of licences eg Class 1, class 2 etc.
Apparently those ideas were submitted to the then Minister of State for Health at that time (Chan Soo Sen) then he was transfered out to another Ministry (the latest is he is back to private sector now)and the proposals and suggestions were put at the back of the queue again.
When we last discussed this in class on 21st May (Sunday) the lecturer was saying they were talking to Dr Balaji the "current" Minister of State for Health on this.
Well it was recently announced that Balaji is now Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and no longer in MOH. Current MOS is Heng Chee How.
So I guess the idea gets put to the back of the queue again.
LOL!
I wish more allopathic doctors are like you, dr Oz Bloke.
Personally, I believe in Integrative medicine. Doctor should seek the best method to treat a patient, regardless of whether they are TCM or western drugs? I do recognised the fact that allopathic doctors and TCM doctor are bounded by rules and regulations of their professional governing bodies and hence they do not cross into each other's area. That's fine.
But that doesn't stop one from learning more about the other medical system, which is what you are doing now.
And I salute you for doing that.I am sure you will be a much more superior doctor than the rest who may be too narrow minded to embrace the other form of medical systems.
IF we are able to recognised the strength and weaknesses of each medical system and stop debating over which is better, I think ultimately doctors and patients will benefit.
My personal hero is Dr Andrew Weil, who is , to me a truely great doctor.
Right now, as a patient in Singapore, it's hard to really find an integrative therapy clinic. I wish for that to happen one day. Personally, I feel that should be the way to go. However, provided the Government and the medical professional bodies go towards that integration. But then again, for political reason, maybe it will never happen.
As a patient, I would choose someone like you as my doctor over another who doesn't even know or bother to know about TCM or other forms of complementry therapies for that matter.
So , all the best in studies.
From:
An Integrative Medicine student
Dear anon, thank you for your encouragement. I share your sentiments as well. I actually just started out thinking that hypertension does not equal taking medicine forever, and that "lifestyle modifications" was not a just a line in medical textbooks but actually serious stuff that needed to be learned in detail. It was that simple. And then I read more and more and I opened my mind as well.
There are many many people out there in the alternative medicine field. Some are western medical doctors ie MBBS or MD, some are not. But personally I find that the ones who did the MBBS or MD tend to be more balanced and better able to answer questions objectively.
While it is certainly very difficult to do a medical undergrad course, I think that should be the foundation for any "integrative medicine" practitioner. At least for now in this current day and age.
The majority of health care systems are based on western medicine anyway and thus we have to respect that fact.
But the sad thing of course is that most western doctors believe that western medicine is the superior school of medicine. They might be right to a certain extent on certain areas, but it is not absolutely true either.
Alternative medicine of course has had it's problems with regulation, upholding standards etc. Hence why it is treated with so much skepticism as well.
The right step is for more western medical MBBS or MD doctors to learn more about alternative medicine. Just like Andrew Weil, Tom Smith, Willaim Falon etc
Dear Dr Oz Bloke,
Well said! I agree with you that the foundation to Integrative Medicine should be, well, ideally a medical undergrad course. And perhaps complementing that with other "alternative" treatments. In this way, the doctor would be in a much better position to treat a patient because he understands the east and west concepts.
That's why I think it's very nice of the TCM school to open up a course, and specifically catering it to Western trained doctors. I am not even sure if NUS MBBS course would ever extend this gesture back to the students of TCM? ;P
Personally, besides western medicine, I think TCM and Ayurveda are two alternative medical system (or philosophy) worth exploring because of it's history and strong concept.
Yes, there are many Alternative practitioners out there. Because anything outside of western medicine are all termed Alternative! Because they are not recognised nor are they accepted as mainstream at the moment.
But slowly, some treatments and medical system that can be proven to be effective will be reclassified into the conventional practice. eg. Accupuncture.
But to be fair, there are really a lot of "crappy" alternative therapies and treatments out there. And unethical practitioners making false claims about what they can do. These are the people who give alternative medicine a bad name.
I guess the only way is regulation and education.
From: Int
Hi Int,
I doubt NUS medical school would reciprocate with a course for TCM doctors too.
I agree with you that there are many "scam" alternative medicine practitioners out there. In fact sometimes it's far easier to be a non registered, non licensed alternative medicine practitioner. You can say anything you want and get away with most of it. But once you are registered.....
Well the issue is also that what is the advantage of being registered?
Do patients really care? I think most Singaporeans don't really have much of an understanding of such things. They see some shop with some nice looking certificates with fancy names (could be from sham unis) and they think this guy is legit!
Is there even education of people as to what constitutes a proper qualification or license in a particular therapy? Even western medical doctors are having these problems as far as aesthetic medicine, mesotherapy etc is concerned. For eg most pple don't know that a Masters in Dermatology from the UK does not make the doctor a Dermatology specialist. But people see the Masters Certificate and they think....Specialist!
Hence sometimes I feel that being registered is actually a bane rather than a boon to the practitioner. It's good for the patients, because they can be assured of some standard of treatment. Ideally you have to regulate EVERYBODY.
That means the moment you are into health care, you have to be registered. Well there lies the political problem. The problem also of enforcing all this comes to mind.
I still see several chiropracters in practice. Aromatherapy consultants in practice. I doubt they are registered. People tell me "Don't worry lah. If they are really that crap, they will disappear. Those doing well are there because they are good mah!" That's sort of saying let the market regulate itself.
Well if you go by that argument, then why bother to register any practitioners (western medical docs,alternative medicine, TCM etc) and regulate at all?
Just let the market decide then.
Right now we have a situation where being registered is clearly not an advantage to practitioners.
Dr Oz
I think most patients do care abt the registration of TCM practitioners but the problem is where and how are they going to get information - I am totally clueless.
There are no education on such matters for laymen. Honestly like you said, patients just look at the certificates on the wall and all the degrees, awards, etc - how and where do we verify it then?
And their certificates are all in chinese that it make harder for those with the language problem.
That's why I am very careful when seeking TCM treatments esp. acupuncture - I will go for the big and reputable ones and not any shops in the neighbourhood.
Unlike western docs, we can turn to SMC.
I think all TCM practitioners should be registered in order to protect the patients.
"most people don't know that a masters in Dermatology from UK does not make the doc a Dermatology specialist."
I didn't know that, learn something new today.
What abt M.Med (Family Medicine)are they specialist?
Whether a doctor can be registered as a specialist in Singapore depends on what the SMC recognizes as specialist qualifications.
MMed (Fam Med) is a recognized specialist qualification.
Basically if the qualification is a Masters degree from Singapore, it's usually recognized by SMC. (Makes logical sense right?)
For example some doctors may have the Member of the Royal College of Surgeons (MRCS) from UK that's a specialist qualification similar to the old FRCS (fellow) from the UK. In the past if you had FRCS it made you a surgeon already.
Today the MRCS is practically worthless. It's just a entry pass to taking the MMed (Surgery) from Singapore so that you can become a registered surgeon in Singapore.
Perhaps as a start the right question anyone should be asking practitioners is something like this :
"Are you are registered specialist (eg Dermatology specialist, Cardiology specialist, TCM specialist etc) with the SMC or MOH?"
Key word is registered specialist with local government/professional body.
Overseas registration does not mean automatically registered in Singapore. It's just the way the world works.
The same happens in other countries too.
Dear Dr Oz
Thanks for the info and now I understand better and know what I am looking at.
"MMed (Fam Med) is a recognised specialist qualification" - what exactly do they specialised in?
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