A file photo of traditional Chinese medicine. [Photo/VCG] 

The city of Qingdao, Shandong province has consistently improved the development policy and working mechanism for traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in recent years.

The municipal government has established a joint conference system for TCM, and established expert advisory committees for the reform and development of TCM and TCM administrative bureaus in ten districts under its jurisdiction.

In recent years, Qingdao has achieved remarkable results in TCM reform. It has set up the Qingdao Research Institute of Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. A 10-member team headed by a Taishan Scholar has settled in and 88 research labs of well-known TCM experts, including 10 TCM masters, have been established.

It has improved the reform of payment methods for TCM medical insurance. A total of 16 dominant diseases of outpatient TCM have been included in the overall payment scope of medical insurance and package settlement has been implemented.

Qingdao has also implemented the strategy of TCM plus tourism, elderly care, healthcare, and culture. It selected eleven towns with TCM characteristics, established five TCM bases, and developed four TCM tourism routes. 

The city has built six TCM hospitals featuring integrated medical and nursing services. It took the lead in releasing ten appropriate TCM technologies for families in China.

It has built 12 TCM culture publicity and education bases and three TCM culture theme parks, establishing the first "TCM culture experience base for international students" through college cooperation. It also launched a collection of TCM prescription handwritings and selected more than 100 works. 

The city's TCM service capacity at the grassroots level has significantly improved. There are four tertiary TCM hospitals, six TCM demonstration units in national general hospitals, and four national TCM advanced units at the grassroots level. 

To date, Qingdao has built 155 TCM centers, including 20 national ones deemed excellent. All of the community health service centers and town health centers, as well as most of the community health service stations and village clinics can provide TCM services.

A TCM practitioner burns mugwort while treating a client by moxibustion. [Photo/Xinhua]

About 20.9 percent of the city's residents understand TCM culture, much higher than the national rate of 12.85 percent.

Qingdao Haici Medical Group has successfully held two sessions of the Qingdao Traditional Chinese Medicine Masters Forum, and the third session is currently being planned.

Haici Hospital has built eight TCM master consulting rooms and introduced 44 famous TCM experts. It has provided medical services to more than 2,000 residents. The masters and experts have passed on the classics of TCM to inheritors and have continuously improved the hospital's TCM services.

All districts in Qingdao are promoting the development of TCM. For example, Shibei district currently has four TCM hospitals, six TCM outpatient departments, 64 TCM clinics, and 420 medical institutions equipped with TCM departments. The medical institutions that can provide TCM services account for 65 percent of the total number.

The district has established a TCM service network based on 74 community health service institutions, which has achieved national resources planning and allocation. Residents are able to walk to a medical institution that provides TCM services within 15 minutes.

A staff worker shows a kind of herbal medicine in a pharmacy in Qingdao, Shandong province. [Photo by Yu Fangping/for China Daily]