Replies to LegCo questions
LCQ20: Manipulative therapy development
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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LCQ20 Annex