Tradional and complementary medicine

Accept only scientifically proven treatment

It was indeed gratifying for Director General of Health,Datuk Dr.Ismail Marican to publicly reassure the public at large on the care taken to introduce traditional and complementary medicine(TCM) in government hospitals, “Care taken on TCM” (Star May 24).

While agreeing that TCM is fast gaining popularity worldwide, this alone should not be the reason for introducing it in our hospitals. While commending the ministry of health for taking measures to ensure only safe, proven and high-quality practices will be allowed to operate, it is pertinent to stress that TCM should not be mixed up with the services of modern medicine in our hospitals. This would only complicate treatment for the unwary public especially those from the lower income group.

Who is going to advice patients on the choice of treatment especially for critical illnesses?. Will traditional practitioners recognize the limitations in their treatment?. As far as we know most of them claim that they have a cure for all ailments and they are immune from litigation for complications from their treatment unlike practicing clinicians of modern medicine. Can we, practicing doctors of modern medicine refuse to treat their complications for fear of litigation?

Enacting legislation, like the TCM Act, is good but it alone will not significantly ensure safety and quality of TCM practices. This has been shown by the numerous cases fraud and cheating employed by so called qualified traditional medical practitioners who in fact turn out to be “sinsehs” and “bomohs” who just resort to witchcraft, trickery and scams in the pretext of curing ailments.

The ministry should embark on extensive campaigns to educate the public to accept treatment based on scientifically proven principles and not succumb to unproven methods that may be fatal. We had spent much time, energy and money to bring modern evidence-based medicine to our people in the sixties and seventies.

By doing so we have eradicated deadly diseases like TB, malaria, syphilis, typhoid, leprosy, dysenteries and so on. We have greatly reduced our infant and maternal mortality rates. We have succeeded to a great deal in encouraging our people especially in rural areas to accept surgical treatment for cancers.

We did all these by introducing modern scientifically proven medical practices not by magic and witchcraft. We need to progress from here and not slide back in time and development thereby rendering futile all our efforts in the past. Modern medicine has advanced so rapidly that unless we focus all our energy and wealth to strive hard to keep up, we will be left behind.

Dr.Chris Anthony