Hong Kong urgently needs a hospital to teach Traditional Chinese Medicine

Chinese medicine clinics are everywhere in Hong Kong and, for more than a decade since the 1997 handover, Chinese medicine education has been part of the undergraduate curriculum.

Many Hong Kong's practitioners were trained on the mainland, and some have only apprenticeship training. But local universities have emerged as a source of talent for the traditional field, producing about 70 graduates a year.

Unlike the much-envied graduates of mainstream medical schools, these graduates end up working in clinics, and are denied a chance for key practice due to the lack of a teaching hospital.

Of the three universities offering Chinese medicine studies - Chinese University, the University of Hong Kong and Baptist University - the latter has made the strongest call for a Chinese medicine teaching hospital. It hopes to use a site adjacent to its School of Chinese Medicine, on the southern part of the former Lee Wai Lee campus .

Alumni and some members of the public support the idea, but the is inclined to build private flats on the site instead. It has applied to the Town Planning Board (TPB) to change the zoning to "residential" rather than "government, institution and community".

The site is now used by Baptist University and Polytechnic University as classrooms and offices on a temporary lease, but they will have to move out by the end of the month if the government decides not to renew the lease. A decision is expected next year, following a public hearing on its future use. A public consultation exercise conducted by the statutory body earlier this year received 25,884 representations, of which an overwhelming majority (99 per cent) opposed the rezoning.