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Following is a question by the Hon Leung Yiu-chung and a verbal reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (June 25):
Question:
It has been learnt that at present a group of graduates from part-time undergraduate degree courses in Chinese medicine are not permitted by the Chinese Medicine Practitioners Board of the Chinese Medicine Council of Hong Kong to take the Chinese Medicine Practitioner (CMP) Licensing Examination. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether:
(a) it knows the number of the graduates mentioned above; and
(b) the Government will proactively help this group of graduates to obtain permission to take the CMP Licensing Examination; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
Madam President,
The registration system for Chinese medicine practitioners (CMPs) is based on the Chinese Medicine Ordinance (the Ordinance). The Chinese Medicine Council of Hong Kong (CMCHK) is the regulatory body established under the Ordinance. Its underlying Chinese Medicine Practitioners Board (the Practitioners Board) is responsible for regulating CMPs.
The Ordinance stipulates that the Practitioners Board shall conduct a Chinese Medicine Practitioners Licensing Examination (the licensing examination). Listed CMPs, as well as those who have satisfactorily completed such undergraduate degree course of training or its equivalent as is approved by the Practitioners Board, are eligible to undertake the licensing examination.
The quality of CMPs has a direct impact on people's health and even safety, so the Practitioners Board has a duty to ensure that all CMPs practising in Hong Kong are up to professional standards. The Practitioners Board, as empowered by the Ordinance, stipulates that a course must be a full-time undergraduate degree course in Chinese medicine if it is to be recognised for the purpose of undertaking the licensing examination. This is to ensure that registered CMPs have received comprehensive university education, and have adequate opportunities to practise continuously.
Some students enrolled in non-local part-time Chinese medicine degree courses have previously requested through the Legislative Council and other channels that they should be allowed to undertake the licensing examination. One of their arguments is that the Practitioners Board had once decided that students enrolled in the part-time Chinese medicine degree courses of the University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Baptist University in or before 2002 could sit the licensing examination. As repeatedly explained by CMCHK and the Practitioners Board, that decision was made after considering the historical circumstances of Chinese medicine education in Hong Kong. It is an exceptional and one-off arrangement and does not extend to subsequent local part-time courses as well as the various non-local part-time courses then existed.
A student of a non-local part-time degree course in Chinese medicine had applied for judicial review of and appealed against the decision of the Practitioners Board. However, the judicial review and the appeal were both dismissed. The Court of Appeal of the High Court considered that the Practitioners Board's distinction between local and non-local part-time degree courses was a valid, rational and proportionate one. The Practitioners Board could not be faulted for making an exception only in respect of universities in Hong Kong.
I will proceed to answer the two parts of the question.
(a) We do not have the number of all local and non-local part-time Chinese medicine degree courses and the corresponding number of graduates. Since 2003 when the Practitioners Board first conducted the licensing examination, 21 applications from students enrolled in non-local Chinese medicine degree courses for sitting the licensing examination have been rejected.
(b) If education institutions would like to apply for recognition of their Chinese medicine courses, they should make reference to the requirements announced by the Practitioners Board in designing their courses, and submit them to the Practitioners Board for consideration. CMCHK and the Practitioners Board, as independent statutory bodies, will consider the applications under the principle of professional autonomy.
As far as we understand, some Hong Kong students are still taking the two non-local part-time Chinese medicine degree courses that are not recognised by the Practitioners Board. The total teaching hours (excluding clinical training) of the two courses range from around 660 to 1 000 hours. In comparison, the total teaching hours (excluding clinical training) of the local full-time courses recognised by the Board amount to 2 600 hours or more.
The Practitioners Board's requirement for recognised courses is premised upon safeguarding people's health and maintaining the professional standards of CMPs. We understand that the Practitioners Board therefore has no intention to relax the requirement that recognised courses must be conducted in full-time mode.
Ends/Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Issued at HKT 15:52
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