Competitive city of TCM to rise

The city of Datong in North China's Shanxi province will implement seven major projects to achieve its goal of building a city competitive in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) by 2030.

The projects focus on the improvement of TCM medical services, the expansion of the TCM health service industry, the protection and utilization of TCM resources, the production and quality improvement of TCM materials, the modernization of the TCM industry, the training of TCM professionals, and TCM technological innovation.

According to the plan, municipal TCM hospitals should reach the third level – the highest in China's hospital system – and each county in the city should build a standardized public TCM hospital at the second level or higher. TCM hospitals will be encouraged to form medical consortia, TCM specialist alliances, and urban medical consortia.

The city will promote the improvement of medical institutions in TCM departments such as acupuncture, massage, orthopedics, anorectal, rehabilitation, and geriatrics, and strive to build more than 30 provincial key specialties and 100 specialties and outpatient clinics by 2030.

A general survey of TCM resources will also be advanced to establish a database of TCM resources. Technical standards for the cultivation, collection, and storage of Chinese medicinal materials will be formulated, and the city will explore and pass down processing technology of authentic traditional Chinese medicine and enhance modern Chinese medicine technology.

In addition, county-level TCM professional teams will be expanded by increasing special positions for general TCM physicians and building one or two professional TCM studios in each county in Datong.