Review of Traditional Chinese Medicine
This is the third newsletter on the Review of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Victoria. The first newsletter (Feb 1996) outlined the purpose of the review and the process. The second newsletter (Nov 1996) gave a progress report on the review and provided a summary of the main findings of the Interim Report from the Research project conducted by University of Western Sydney Macarthur and Southern Cross University.
This third issue gives a further update on progress with the review, provides details of the Victorian Ministerial Advisory Committee on TCM set up by the Victorian Minister for Health the Hon Rob Knowles, and a summary of the public consultation process that has been completed following publication of the discussion paper on options for regulation.
The review of TCM is being conducted in three stages:
Stage 1 - Research - March 1995 - November 1996 - Towards a Safer Choice
Stage 2 - Policy Development and Public Consultation - November 1996 - March 1998
Stage 3 - Implementation - Scheduled for July 1998 onwards.
'Towards a Safer Choice'
The report Towards a Safer Choice: The Practice of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Australia was launched by Minister Knowles in November 1996. The researchers, Mr Alan Bensoussan and Dr Stephen Myers investigated and reported on seven main areas:
- The regulatory frameworks in China, other countries, and all states of Australia.
- The profile of the TCM workforce in Victoria, N.S.W. and Queensland including the organisations that represent practitioners.
- The profile of patients using TCM.
- The risks and benefits of TCM.
- The nature of the links and referral networks between practitioners of TCM and other health care practitioners.
- The nature of TCM education in Australia and China.
- The adequacy or otherwise of the current state regulatory frameworks.
The report provides the first comprehensive view of the practice of TCM in Australia. Copies are available from University of Western Sydney Macarthur, Tel: 02 97726412, Fax: 02 97730998
or E-mail: c.dower@uws.edu.au
Role of AHMAC
Health practitioner registration is a power which rests with State and Territory Governments. However, as a result of implementation of Federal and State Mutual Recognition legislation, the Australian Health Ministers Advisory Council (AHMAC) has established processes and criteria for assessing applications for registration from unregistered health occupations. AHMAC is made up of the heads of all State and Commonwealth Health Departments. It meets at regular intervals to make recommendations to State, Territory and Federal Health Ministers on matters of common concern.
AHMAC has agreed that no new health occupation will be registered by any State without agreement from a majority of states. At its February 1997 meeting, AHMAC endorsed the Victorian review process, and agreed for Victoria to take the lead in developing a proposal for regulation of TCM. Policy recommendations arising from the review will inform State and Territory Health Ministers in determining whether to proceed with statutory based registration of TCM practitioners in each State/Territory, and if so, what form should this take.
Ministerial Advisory Committee on TCM
At the launch of the report Towards a Safer Choice, the Victorian Minister for Health announced the formation of a Ministerial Advisory Committee on TCM. The role of the Committee is to assess the findings of the report and make recommendations on a regulatory framework for Victoria. To ensure adequate involvement in the process from all those with an interest, two subcommittees of the Ministerial Advisory Committee were also established. The following people were appointed to the Committee and/or its subcommittees:
Ministerial Advisory Committee:
Chair: Mr Robert Doyle, MP. Parliamentary Secretary to the Victorian Minister for Health
Executive Officer: Ms Anne-Louise Carlton
Ms Jocelyn Bennett
Ms Meredith Carter
Mr Max Pettelin
Associate Professor Rob Moulds
Dr Stephen Myers
Professor Dick Smallwood
Associate Professor Evan Willis
Mr Alan Bensoussan
Dr Bing-Zhong Chen
Mr Steven Clavey
Dr Ben Foo
Prof. Andy Kleynhans
Prof. T. Chiang Lin
Mr Brian May
Prof. Jerry Zhang
Dr Vivian Lin
Primary TCM Practitioners Subcommittee:
Chair: Dr Vivian Lin
Ms Shelley Beer
Ms Jocelyn Bennett
Ms Christine Berle
Ms Chen Ying
Ms Judy James
Prof. Kai Zhu Li
Ms Sue Li
Prof. Yoland Lim
Prof. Wong Lun
Ms Glenys Savage
Prof. Peter Sherwood
Dr Deyuan Wang
Dr Kerry Watson
Dr Charlie Xue
Dr Samuel Zheng
Generalist TCM Practitioners Subcommittee:
Chair: Dr Graham Rouch
Ms Jocelyn Bennett
Ms Christine Berle
Dr Paul Ghaie (Medicine)
Mr Peter Gigante (Shiatsu Massage)
Ms Judy James
Mr Raymond Khoury (Naturopathy)
Prof. Andy Kleynhans (Chiropractic)
Mr Brian May
Mr Peter Richardson (Physiotherapy)
Prof. Yuri Sawenko (Nursing)
Dr Yuntian Sun (Medicine)
Ms Grace Tham (Nursing)
Dr C.T. Tsiang (Medicine)
Ms Vivienne Williams
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Public Consultation Process
The Victorian Ministerial Advisory Committee on TCM approved the release of a discussion paper in August 1997, with a deadline for submissions of Friday 24th October 1997. Availability of the document was advertised in The Australian on Saturday 30th August 1997 and through the Internet. Due to the delay in release of the Chinese language version of the document, the deadline for submissions was extended until Wednesday 12th November 1997. Over 2,000 copies of the English language version of the paper have been distributed and approximately 200 copies of the Chinese language version.
Public Meetings
Public meetings were held in Queensland, NSW and Victoria, sponsored by the organisations listed below. Information on the review process was presented by a panel of speakers from the Ministerial Advisory Committee and Subcommittees. Attendances ranged from 20 to over 120 participants with a total of approximately 400 people attending the meetings. Thank you to all those organisations which assisted with the consultation process and sponsored public meetings, including the Australian Natural Therapists Association, the Australian Traditional Medicine Society, Federation of Chinese Medicine Societies, Australian Acupuncture Association, Chronic Illness Alliance (Victorian Health Issues Centre), and the Alliance of Traditional Chinese Medicine Assns.
The main issues of concern raised at the public meetings were:
- Widespread support for statutory registration and a national process for accreditation of courses.
- Concern about arrangements for grand fathering of existing practitioners in the event of introduction of statutory registration.
- Concern that non-English speaking practitioners might be disadvantaged by any stringent language requirements.
Submissions
A total of 78 written submissions were received. They were divided into five main categories:
Category A:
Organisations such as the Health Issues Centre and the Anti Cancer Council which have no direct interest in the provision of TCM services. (13 submissions)
Category B:
Organisations which represent practitioners or students of Chinese Medicine. This includes the universities that operate courses of training. (18 submissions)
Category C:
Organisations whose members practice TCM as part of other health care practices or who have some other direct interest such as training generic practitioners. (11 submissions).
Category D:
Individual practitioners of TCM or TCM students. (28 submissions).
Category E:
Consumers of Chinese Medicine. (8 submissions).
There was widespread support for statutory based occupational registration of TCM practitioners, from both TCM organisations and from mainstream organisations. Some of the organisations which support the introduction of statutory registration include:
- AMA Queensland Branch
- Anti-Cancer Council
- Australian Complementary Health Association
- Australian Physiotherapy Association (Victorian Branch)
- Health Complaints Commissioner of NSW
- Health Issues Centre
- Health Services Commissioner of Victoria
- Nurses Board of Victoria
- RMIT University
- The Victorian Workcover Authority
- Mr John Thwaites, Victorian Shadow Minister for Health
- University of Sydney
- University of Technology Sydney
- Victoria University
Most organisations believe that self regulation will not adequately protect the public. They generally support the Victorian model of health practitioner registration as suitable, and provided a range of comments on how a registration board should be structured, standard setting and grand fathering arrangements, and arrangements for non-English speaking practitioners.
The work of the Ministerial Advisory Committee and its subcommittees is nearing completion with the finalisation of a report to Minister Knowles on a proposed model for regulation of the TCM profession.
What Next?
It is expected that the Ministerial Advisory Committee will submit its report to Minister Knowles in March 1998. Minister Knowles will then take the recommendations forward to a meeting of all State, Territory and Commonwealth Health Ministers across Australia. This meeting is expected to occur in June or July 1998. Following broad agreement on a direction for reform, it is expected that each State and Territory will be responsible for determining its own program and timetable for implementation.
Further Information:
Further details on the project are available on internet site:
hna.ffh.vic.gov.au/phb/hce/chinese/discpap/index.html
Further information is available from:
Ms Anne-Louise Carlton
Project Manager, Health Care Evaluation Section
Public Health Branch
Department of Human Services
Tel: 03 9616 6137
Fax: 03 9616 7767
Email: anne-louise.carlton@dhs.vic.gov.au
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