China to train 15,000 TCM backbone clinicians

BEIJING - China will train and cultivate about 15,000 traditional Chinese medicine clinicians for hospitals at county level by 2015, according to a government plan revealed on Tuesday.

The 12th Five-Year Plan for Traditional Chinese Medicine said that the government will also provide about 50,000 country doctors with higher education on TCM majors to cultivate 30,000 TCM general practitioners for grassroots medical facilities.

The plan, issued by State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, said that every Chinese city at prefecture level will have a TCM hospital by 2015, a time frame in which 95 percent of community healthcare centers and 90 percent of township health clinics will also provide TCM services.

It estimates that there will be 3,397 TCM hospitals and clinics around China in 2015. The country had 3,232 TCM hospitals in 2010.

To ensure the flourishing of TCM theories and techniques, the plan said the government will select 700 experienced TCM doctors as instructors to cultivate another 1,400 promising young TCM clinicians as their apprentices and successors.