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Following is a question by the Hon Alice Mak and a written reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr Ko Wing-man, in the Legislative Council today (June 17):
Question:
Earlier on, a group of manipulative physiotherapy practitioners and instructors have relayed to me that although there is growing public recognition of the efficacy of manipulative therapy (MT) and the Employees Retraining Board (ERB) has offered a considerable number of relevant training courses, the development of the industry has been hindered by the relevant policies of the Government. For example, MT establishments (other than premises for practising Chinese medicine operated by a registered Chinese medicine practitioner or listed Chinese medicine practitioner) are required to apply, under the Massage Establishments Ordinance (Cap. 266), for licences for operation. They consider that as MT and healthcare massage are different in nature from that of general massage, the authorities should revise the regulation of MT establishments. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the number of MT establishments holding valid licences for operation of massage establishments, as well as the respective numbers of applications for such licences received and approved by the authorities, in each of the past five years;
(2) whether the authorities will review the regulation of MT establishments and amend the relevant legislation, so as to boost the development of the MT profession;
(3) whether it knows, in each of the past five years, (i) the number of courses on MT and healthcare massage organised by ERB, (ii) the respective numbers of trainees who enrolled in and completed such courses, and (iii) the number of trainees who joined the industry after completing such courses;
(4) as I have learnt that most Chinese medicine hospitals on the Mainland have MT specialties, whether it knows if the Hospital Authority has plans to set up a MT specialty in the first Chinese medicine hospital in Hong Kong, which is currently under planning; if there are no such plans, of the reasons for that; and
(5) whether the authorities will conduct a comprehensive study and review on the development of the MT profession (including training, manpower resources, qualifications accreditation, regulatory system, etc.) and recognise the MT profession as one of the supplementary medical professions?
Reply:
President,
(1) and (2) The Massage Establishments Ordinance (Cap. 266) aims to prevent and combat vice activities operated by criminals occurring in massage establishments through a licensing regime. The Ordinance was amended in 2001 with an aim to narrowing the scope of regulation to massage establishments. At present, the Ordinance and the licensing regime do not apply to a number of specified services, which include the premises of the medical professionals who are registered under relevant Ordinances, such as doctors, physiotherapists, Chinese medicine practitioners and chiropractors. The Police do not maintain a breakdown in figures of licensed massage establishments by different services provided.
(3) The number of massage courses and manipulative therapy courses offered by the Employees Retraining Board (ERB), the number of trainees admitted and trainees who have completed such courses, and the number of trainees placed at jobs relevant to training upon course completion in the past five years (i.e. from 2010-11 to 2014-15) are set out at Annex.
(4) In the 2014 Policy Address, the Chief Executive announced the Government's decision to reserve a site in Tseung Kwan O for setting up a Chinese medicine hospital. The Chinese Medicine Development Committee (Committee) has carried out in-depth discussion and started studying and developing the best practice for the Chinese medicine hospital. We agree with the Committee's recommendation which preliminarily considers that it would be more feasible for an operating body to run the Chinese medicine hospital on a self-financing basis with integrated Chinese-Western medicine (ICWM), rather than pure Chinese medicine, as the mode of operation. Since Chinese medicine in-patient services are novel in Hong Kong, we therefore agree with the Committee's recommendation to carry out some specific research projects before the establishment of the Chinese medicine hospital, such as the introduction of in-patient services in public hospitals under the ICWM Pilot Programme (Pilot Programme), which shall form the basis for formulating the mode of operation of the Chinese medicine hospital.
The Hospital Authority (HA) launched the Phase I of the Pilot Programme in September 2014 in three public hospitals to provide ICWM treatment during in-patient stay and follow-up Chinese medicine out-patient services for HA in-patients of three disease areas, namely stroke care, acute low back pain care and cancer palliative care. The Government and the Committee will take into account the results and experiences gathered from the Pilot Programme when considering the development of Chinese medicine in-patient services.
(5) According to the Chinese Medicine Ordinance (Cap. 549), "practicing Chinese medicine" means any of the following act or activities: (a) the diagnosis, treatment, prevention or alleviation of any disease or any symptom of a disease; (b) the prescription of Chinese herbal medicines or proprietary Chinese medicines; (c) the regulation of the functional states of the human body, on the basis of traditional Chinese medicine in general practice, acupuncture or bone-setting, and "Chinese medicine practice" or "practice of Chinese medicine" shall be construed accordingly. Currently, only registered and listed Chinese medicine practitioners can practise Chinese medicine in Hong Kong. The Ordinance also stipulates that any person who wishes to become a registered Chinese medicine practitioner shall undertake and pass the Licensing Examination conducted by the Chinese Medicine Council of Hong Kong. To be eligible for undertaking the Licensing Examination, one should have satisfactorily completed such undergraduate degree course of training in Chinese medicine practice or its equivalent as approved by the Chinese Medicine Council of Hong Kong.
Ends/Wednesday, June 17, 2015
Issued at HKT 18:11
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