Traditional Chinese Medicine - reply to Dr. Colin Ng

Printed in St Times Online Forum


I refer to the letter from Dr. Colin Lim, entitled “SMA’s confusing suggestion (ST 17 Feb 2011).

I agree with the approach taken by the council of the Singapore Medical Association to allow the use of alternative medicine.

My family have enjoyed the use of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) for three generations. It has been effective in overcoming some health problems that can be corrected by restoring the balance in the body. We seek western medicine only for the more serious conditions. This has helped us to reduce the cost of medical care.

Singapore does not have sufficient doctors who are trained in western medicine to take care of our large population, including the growing number of elderly people. We need all the available resources. The TCM practitioners can play a role in the areas that they are good in.

I agree with Dr. Ng on the value of getting evidence on the effectiveness of the TCM practices. While there is a lack of data of the effective of TCM, based on the approach of data collation used in western medicine, we must not overlook the fact that TCM has been used by many generations and have been found to be useful. If TCM was not useful, it would have been abandoned long ago.

Tan Kin Lian