All but four of the city's 228 neighborhood health centers provide traditional Chinese medicine to local residents, Shanghai Health Bureau said yesterday.

TCM services now cover all downtown centers and 97 percent of clinics on the outskirts, officials said.

The bureau started trials of TCM in neighborhoods in 1999 and started to spread the service across the city in November, 2006.

To promote the service and improve its quality, authorities named 32 model TCM service centers in each district and Chongming County to showcase good traditional medicine practices.

Health databases have been set up in each center and services include disease prevention and control using a combination of traditional and Western medicine, home visits by doctors, rehabilitation services and lectures on TCM.

"Traditional Chinese medicine in neighborhoods is welcomed by the public, who can receive TCM within 10 to 15 minutes' walking distance," said Wang Tong, a Shanghai Health Bureau official. "It effectively solves local residents' requirements for cheap and accessible treatment."

The average cost for each outpatient in the 32 model centers is 91.78 yuan (US$12.29), while TCM services cost 70.34 yuan. A TCM prescription costs an average 69.34 yuan.

(Shanghai Daily November 1, 2007)