Another university in Hong Kong has called on the Hong Kong government to set up a mechanism in HK to elevate the status of Chinese medicine to a level that allows Chinese herbalists to participate in the treatment of diseases at public hospitals.

Cao Kejian, assistant professor of the Chinese medicine division of the School of Professional and Continuing Education of the University of Hong Kong, told a local Chinese-language newspaper Ta Kung Pao in an article Thursday that the Hong Kong government should set up an advisory committee, which will become a common platform to unite Chinese medicine professionals in Hong Kong.

Cao said that at the moment, the lack of such a platform, coupled with the bias against Chinese medicine, left behind by the colonial administration here, has contributed to the current inability for both Chinese medicine professionals and western medicine practitioners to cooperate at Hong Kong's public hospitals to treat diseases, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).

"A minority of western medicine doctors here are conceited, protectionist and biased in attitude towards Chinese medicine," he said.

In the longer term, the advisory committee that consists of surgeons, physicians, gynecologists and pediatricians, should be set up and such experts should be allowed to conduct joint-diagnosis of thorny diseases at public hospitals, Cao said, adding that cooperation may also transcend the diagnostic and therapeutic aspects and be deepened to include medical research, he said.

Cooperation may also include how the administration of Chinese medicine helps alleviate the side effects of western medicine, he said, stressing that SARS is a good starting point to embark on such cooperation.

(Xinhua News Agency May 15, 2003)