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
