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Following is a question by the Hon Albert Ho and a written reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (May 20):
Question:
Regarding the eligibility of graduates of Chinese medicine courses to take the Chinese Medicine Practitioners (CMP) Licensing Examination, will the Government inform this Council whether it knows:
(a) the considerations of the Chinese Medicine Practitioners Board under the Chinese Medicine Council of Hong Kong in listing "having satisfactorily completed a full-time on campus degree course with duration of not less than 5 years" as a requirement for taking the CMP Licensing Examination, and if there is any other region which has adopted similar requirements for CMP licensing examinations or any other profession which has adopted similar requirements for licensing examinations; and
(b) if there is any Chinese medicine course, which is currently offered by a local tertiary institution, whose graduates are not eligible to take the CMP Licensing Examination; if so, the current number of such graduates, as well as their placement rate and the professions in which they were engaged at the end of the year of their graduation?
Reply:
President,
(a) In accordance with the Chinese Medicine Ordinance (CMO), the registration system for Chinese medicine practitioners (CMPs) in Hong Kong was implemented in 2000. The Chinese Medicine Council of Hong Kong is the regulatory body set up under the CMO. Its Chinese Medicine Practitioners Board (the Practitioners Board) is responsible for regulating the CMPs in Hong Kong.
Section 59 of the CMO stipulates that the Practitioners Board shall conduct a Chinese Medicine Practitioners Licensing Examination (the Licensing Examination), the passing of which shall qualify a person to apply to be a registered CMP. According to the CMO, listed CMPs and those who have satisfactorily completed the undergraduate degree course of training in Chinese medicine practice 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. As such, the Practitioners Board considers that students of approved courses who are eligible to undertake the Licensing Examination should have received comprehensive and fundamental university education. The students should also have been provided with adequate opportunity to practise continuously in order to complete all the relevant training and experiments with a long period of clinical training and internship. Given that other local healthcare professions (e.g. medical practitioners and dentists) have adopted full-time undergraduate degree course as the training mode and the registration requirement, the Practitioners Board considers that the full-time mode of education should be adopted for the approved courses for the Licensing Examination.
The Practitioners Board, pursuant to its function as conferred on it by the CMO, set down the basic requirements of an approved course for the Licensing Examination in the light of the above considerations. An approved course should be a full-time undergraduate degree course in Chinese medicine with duration of not less than five years, including a clinical internship of not less than 30 weeks and 10 compulsory subjects on Chinese medicine specified by the Practitioners Board. In addition, the institutions conducting the course must fulfill the basic requirements of university and clinical teaching in terms of teaching condition, teaching/practical exercise facilities, education management, library information, teacher qualifications, admission standard and clinical training, etc. These requirements were announced well in advance in 2002 for compliance and observance by institutions.
(b) In accordance with the requirements set down for an approved course for the Licensing Examination as mentioned above, the full-time undergraduate degree courses in Chinese medicine offered by three local universities, namely the University of Hong Kong, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Hong Kong Baptist University, are recognised by the Practitioners Board as approved courses for the Licensing Examination.
We are aware that a range of full-time or part-time courses in Chinese medicine, including various certificate and diploma programmes, are offered by a number of tertiary institutions in Hong Kong. It should be noted that, unless these programmes can fulfill the basic requirements of an approved course and have been approved by the Practitioners Board, their graduates are not eligible to undertake the Licensing Examination.
Since the Licensing Examination was first conducted in 2003, there have been a total of 62 students of local Chinese medicine courses whose applications for undertaking the Licensing Examination have been declined. These applicants include those who have not satisfactorily completed an approved course or those who have completed a course which has not been approved by the Practitioners Board. We do not maintain detailed statistical data and the placement information in respect of these applicants. The Practitioners Board has reminded all institutions that they have to make clear to students enrolling in courses which have not been approved by the Practitioners Board that they will not be eligible to undertake the Licensing Examination upon completion of the courses.
Ends/Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Issued at HKT 11:59
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