The health ministry has received 18 proposals on treatments that can be adopted and a committee will evaluate the scientific robustness of each of them, health minister Ong Ye Kung said today.

Some will be implemented in a “controlled environment” in the city’s public healthcare institutions for one to two years, he said, adding that the cost-effectiveness of each treatment will also be studied.

“Our vision is not simply adding more TCM services to hospital settings, but to create a really integrated model where the strengths of both systems can be leveraged for optimal patient care,” he said in a speech.

“The goal is to study how TCM, when used alongside western medicine, may improve patient outcomes, or where patients may not be responding well to conventional treatments alone.”

Among the proposals are the use of TCM for post-stroke rehabilitation, chemotherapy-induced side effects and palliative care, he said. Others explore the integration of Chinese and conventional treatments for gastrointestinal disorders and chronic pain, Ong said.

The minister said countries such as the US and the UK have also become more receptive to integrating TCM as complementary therapy to mainstream treatments.

China has “incorporated both TCM and western medicine in undergraduate and postgraduate training,” Ong said.

“When I walked along the corridors of hospitals, medical schools and the National Health Commission in China, the language they use is evidence, data, research for TCM.”