TCM practitioners are not specialists: Khaw
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By Shaffiq Alkhatib | Posted: 02 January 2011 1734 hrs
SINGAPORE: Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan says it is wrong for Traditional Chinese Medicine or TCM practitioners to claim they are specialists.
That's because Singapore currently doesn't have a specialist register for such practitioners.
Mr Khaw was commenting on recent letters issued by the TCM Practitioners Board to errant TCM practitioners who claim to be specialists.
The TCM Practitioners Board was set up under the Health Ministry in 2001 to register and regulate the sector.
Mr Khaw said the authorities will tighten and monitor the situation.
"The TCM Board makes its position quite clear. We don't have a specialist register yet, so how can you call yourself a specialist? If everybody starts calling themselves specialists, that may be misleading to the consumers. That, I think will be unethical. So, anybody who claims themselves to be specialists obviously is misleading the consumers," he said on the sidelines of a New Year celebration at Sembawang on Sunday.
Mr Khaw also said it will take time before the Board can look at registering specialists.
"Even for Western-trained doctors.....it took us many years before we do the specialist register. I suppose if that is also the way for Chinese medicine to develop, we can consider that. But I don't see it as something in the short or immediate term," he said.
Besides registration, the Board also regulates the professional conduct of TCM practitioners.
- CNA -
The proliferation of TCM doctors with master degree and doctorate degree has probably led to the beliefs that they are TCM specialist doctors.
It is to be noted that the admission criteria, training, experience in treating patients, supervision undergone by these local TCM doctors cannot be compared to those TCM doctors in China, though the degrees are also awarded by the prestigious TCM universities in China.
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hey ah khaw, while you're at it, why not whine about the pest specialists, specialist stationary, and other countless businesses/professions who claims to be specialists despite a lack of a 'specialist registrar'?
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many specialists nowadays, otherwise no biz.
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Originally posted by Clivebenss:
The TCM Practitioners Board was set up under the Health Ministry in 2001 to register and regulate the sector.
next time will have childcare board set up under moe to regulate 'childcare specialists', also maid board, tuition board, computer board, hooker board... oh we already have one
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Originally posted by Zweiz:
next time will have childcare board set up under moe to regulate 'childcare specialists', also maid board, tuition board, computer board, hooker board... oh we already have one
no surprise, all these tests, qualifications and licences are extra source of income for the various govt depts.