17.5% of patients in China use TCM: administration

BEIJING -- About 17.5 percent of all patients in China are treated with traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine said on Jan 15.

As of September 2017, 20.4 million patients had been discharged from TCM hospitals, accounting for 15 percent of all discharged patients in the country, the administration said.

Currently, 67 percent of the town-level and community health centers have TCM units, totaling over 30,000. By September 2017, there were 45,800 TCM clinics across China.

Wang Guoqiang, head of the administration, said TCM services are still unbalanced and relatively weak at the grassroots level.

"The needs of the public for TCM cannot yet be met," Wang said.

The administration plans to support medical institutions with specialties on TCM and build at least one public TCM hospital in each county.